Mental Disorders in the Social Environment: Critical Perspectives / Edition 1

by Stuart Kirk

Overview

Social workers provide more mental health services than any other profession, yet recent biomedical trends in psychiatry appear to minimize the importance of their traditional concerns, which focus on the social environment that accompanies mental disorders and their treatment. In twenty-four chapters written by distinguished scholars this book not only calls attention to this emerging problem and challenges conventional mental health beliefs and practices, but also raises provocative questions: Has social work become too closely associated with psychiatry and too quick to adopt a medical approach? Has the focus on the therapeutic relationship negated social work's commitment to social reform? Is the social worker marginalized by the emphasis in mental health on biochemistry and psychopharmacology?

This book calls on social workers and other health care professionals to be more skeptical about diagnosis, community treatment, evidence-based practice, psychotherapy, medications, and managed care.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231128711
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	02/09/2005
Series:	Foundations of Social Work Knowledge Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	478
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Stuart A. Kirk holds the Marjorie Crump Chair in the Department of Social Welfare at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Public Policy and Social Research. Among his books are The Selling of DSM: The Rhetoric of Science in Psychiatry and Making Us Crazy: DSM—The Psychiatric Bible and the Creation of Mental Disorders (both with Herb Kutchins), as well as Science and Social Work: A Critical Appraisal (with William J. Reid). He lives in Oak View, California.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Critical Perspectives, by Stuart A. Kirk
Assessment and Diagnosis
Balancing act: Assessing strengths in mental health practice, by Dennis Saleebey
The Social Context of Interventions
The limits of diagnostic criteria: The role of social context in clinicians'judgments of mental disorder, by Derek Hsieh, Stuart A. Kirk
Evidence-Guided Practice
Mapping practice: Assessment, context, and social justice, by Mark Mattaini
Psychotherapy and Social Work
Disorders versus problems in living in DSM: Rethinking social work's relationship to psychiatry, by Jerry C. Wakefield
Questioning Psychiatric Medications
Diagnosis—an act of faith: The probabilistic nature of diagnosis, by William R. Nugent
Ethics, Laws, And Regulations
Assessing the scientific status of schizophrenia, by John Bola, Deborah Pitts
To stem the tide of degeneracy: The eugenic impulse in social work, by Amy LaPan, Tony Platt
Assertive Community Treatment: The case against the "best tested" evidence-based community treatment for severe mental illness, by Tomi Gomory
Empowerment—The foundation for social work practice in mental health, by Stephen M. Rose
Self-help mental health agencies, by Steven P. Segal
Power, gender, and the self: Reflections on improving mental health for males and females, by Sarah Rosenfield, Kathy Pottick
Evidence-based practice: Breakthrough or buzzword?, by William J. Reid, Julanne Colvin
Critical thinking, evidence-based practice and mental health, by Eileen Gambrill
Mental health and practice guidelines: Panacea or pipedream?, by Matthew O. Howard, Tonya Edmond, Michael G. Vaughn
Putting Humpty together again: Treatment of mental disorders and pursuit of justice in social workís mission, by Jerry C. Wakefield
The problem of psychotherapy in social work, by William Epstein
The misfortunes of behavioral social work: Misprized, misread, and misconstrued, by Bruce A. Thyer
Clinical psychopharmacology trials: "Gold standard" or foolís gold?, by David Cohen
Treatment of newly diagnosed psychosis without anti-psychotic drugs: The Soteria project, by John Bola, Loren Mosher, David Cohen
Psychosocial side effects of drug treatment of youth, by Tally Moses, Stuart A. Kirk
Social work, mental health, and mental disorders: The ethical dimensions, by Frederic Reamer
Managed care and mental health, by Kevin Corcoran, Stephen Gorin, Cynthia Moniz
Involuntary medications of the mentally ill: Continuing controversy, changing scene, by Donald Dickson

What People are Saying About This

Ronald A. Feldman

The book poses a plethora of penetrating and painful questions that must be accorded serious consideration if social work is to be a credible player in mental health. Stuart Kirk's book will force social workers to re-think the very foundations and future directions of mental health practice.

— Ronald A. Feldman, Professor, School of Social Wo rk

James K. Whittaker

This latest effort by Stuart Kirk and his contributors raises critical questions about both the future of mental health treatment and the very nature of social work's identity.On both fronts, it deserves careful reading,thoughtful analysis and critical response by social work practitioners, students and researchers.

— James K. Whittaker, Ph.D., Professor of Social Work, University of Washington

Edward J Mullen

In Mental Disorders in the Social Environment Stuart Kirk sets out to give voice to social work scholars who have developed critical perspectives on contemporary, dominant approaches to mental disorders. He has achieved his objective superbly by assembling in one volume outstanding scholars to address critical issues driving mental health services in the United States. This book should be on every experienced mental health practitioners' bookshelf and required reading in every school of social work.

— Edward J Mullen, Willma & Albert Musher Professor of Social Work; Director, NIMH Predoctoral Training Program in Mental Health and Social Work; Columbia University