Non-Statutory Mental Health Social Work in Primary Care: A Chance for Renewal?

Abstract

The current status of evidence-based practice in the field of mental health has led some to question the potential for innovation if social work practice is organizationally proscribed or reduced to a dogged adherence to methodological orthodoxy. Conversely, social work's value base is esteemed disproportionately to its evidence base. Changing service contexts in the UK, particularly the emergence of Primary Care Trusts as gatekeepers and commissioners of health and social care services, are providing opportunities for social work to develop a new presence and purpose. The authors describe their work in a small-scale service based in primary care that anticipated these opportunities, by a retrospective study of 120 cases. A new evidence base that derives directly from practice is suggested as a way forward for social work education and training, as well as for service and professional development.

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