Inpatient Psychiatric Unit

Deinstitutionalization played a significant role in shaping the current roles of psychiatric social workers. Psychiatric social workers work on inpatient psychiatric units and provide services to individuals with mental illness and their families. Most inpatient psychiatric units are unique clinical settings where doors to the units are locked from the inside and from the outside. Patients are not free to leave the units at will, and visitors to the units are monitored closely. Psychiatric social workers work with patients who voluntarily seek care and others who are involuntarily admitted. In the simplest of terms, inpatient psychiatric care today focuses on stabilization and referral to a lower level of care. Psychiatric social workers create, negotiate, and implement discharge plans. They also provide limited clinical services, usually in the form of group interventions.

To prepare for this Assignment:

Review this week’s resources. Think about the roles and functions of a psychiatric social worker in inpatient psychiatric care settings. Focus on practice skills. Consider the philosophy of psychiatric social work.

In a 3- to 4-page paper:

Explain the philosophy that drives psychiatric social work in caring for patients with mental illness.

Explain the primary goals of psychiatric social workers.

Describe the roles and functions of psychiatric social workers on interdisciplinary inpatient psychiatric teams.

Compare differences and similarities in roles, practice skills, and functions between psychiatric social workers in inpatient units and non-psychiatric medical social workers in other types of medical units or healthcare settings.

Support your Assignment with specific references to resources, using appropriate APA format and style. You are asked to provide a reference list for all resources, including those in the resources for this course.

Resources

Widiger, T. A. (2013). Changes in the conceptualization of personality disorder: The DSM-5 debacle. Clinical Social Work Journal, 41(2), 163–167.

John Hopkins Medicine. (N.D.). The history of psychiatry social work. Retrieved from https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/expert_team/social_work/dept_history.html

National Alliance on mental illness (2019) NAMI Programs retrieved from

https://www.nami.org/Find-Support/NAMI-Programs

Complete the formal analytical report that you described in Project 1 Proposal. The report must do the following:

define a problem,
analyze the criteria for a satisfactory solution,
propose one or more alternative solutions, and
argue for the solution that satisfies the criteria best.
The problem may involve an institutional, technical, or public policy issue that you are working on or have worked on in your other courses; or it may be something related to an organization to which you belong; or it may be related to a job that you’ve held or now hold; or it may be a new area that you are interested in.

The solution to the problem may involve coming up with an original design, choosing between available alternatives, or providing needed information.

Details

The Rhetorical Situation

For the purposes of this report, you should find a real situation in which you are writing the report to a primary reader who has the authority to reject or use your work. So the primary goal of your report is to convince this reader to adopt your recommended solution(s). The report may also have secondary audiences as well; for example, it may serve as a plan for the technical staff who will implement the solution and as an historical record of the decision-making process for future readers.

The problem situation should be real. A real situation is one that you have actually encountered: it might involve a current or former employer, a specific office or department within the University, or a service group to which you belong.

Audience and Style

Your report should be written directly to a person within your real situation who has the authority to decide whether to accept your recommendations. Your tone should be appropriate to the situation–in most cases it will be fairly formal.

Body of Report

All reports should introduce a problem, analyze criteria for a solution, evaluate several solutions against the criteria, and recommend the best solution(s).