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What should community mental health workers do? Experience in an inner city support team

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

T. H. Turner
Affiliation:
Community Psychiatry Research Unit, Hackney Hospital, London E9 6BE
A. Lovett
Affiliation:
Community Psychiatry Research Unit, Hackney Hospital, London E9 6BE
M. Ness
Affiliation:
Community Psychiatry Research Unit, Hackney Hospital, London E9 6BE
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In 1979 a survey of Hackney's psychiatric in-patients revealed that many were resident simply because there was nowhere else for them to go. (Lomas, 1979). As a response to this, the Community Psychiatry Research Unit (CPRU) was set up, and a team of support workers appointed (from nursing, social work and occupational therapy backgrounds) to assist in re-housing and to provide continuing care. Developing projects have meant that the role and job description of this support team have constantly changed. To review their present role, we decided to assess the day-to-day activities of three workers so as to improve our understanding of their function, training needs and work load. Details of the assessment criteria for taking on patients have been outlined by Rich et al (1989).

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Articles
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990

References

Kanter, J. (1989) Clinical case management: definition, principles, components. Hospital & Community Psychiatry, 40, 361.Google Scholar
Lomas, G. (1979) Long-Term Mental Illness in Hackney. Centre for Environmental Studies Working Note 565.Google Scholar
Rich, M. et al (1989) Coordinating care for people disabled by long-term mental illness living in the community. Psychiatric Bulletin, 13, 290291.Google Scholar
Withridge, T. F. (1989) The assertive community treatment worker: an emerging role and its implications for professional training. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 40, 620.Google Scholar
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