Social Worker as a Multidisciplinary Team Member: Embedding Three Cs (Competence, Confidence and Compassion) in Social Work Education in Mental Health

Abstract

Knowledge about mental health and the skills to work effectively with clients who have mental health problems are basic requirements to contemporary social work practice. It has been estimated that approximately 45 percent of Australians will experience a mental illness at some point in their lives. Social workers have been very active in supporting people with mental health issues. However, it requires the involvement of 'whole-of-government' responses especially from public health, multidisciplinary mental health teams and from specialised fields of cognate practice. This presentation focuses on the role of the social worker as a multidisciplinary team member who plays an important part in the assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of clients with the context of their specific employment. Unfortunately, although social workers are key to the provision of a range of these services, their roles in this regard are often challenged, confronted and undermined in the workplace. The question therefore is how can these problems be addressed? How can social work education, for example, work to alleviate these difficulties? How can the profile of social workers be strengthened? These are some of the pertinent questions that the author will address in this presentation. The author will argue that by embedding the 3 Cs in social work education, the profession will be able to strengthen the ways of engagement with the clients and families and also become an active and effective member of a multidisciplinary team.