Critically analyse and discuss the implications and the impact of policy and law related to mental health, substance use, rights of carers and any other legislation and policy of relevance to the case study (and in your practice environment).

Guidance

For this assignment, you will demonstrate your understanding of policy, law, theories and practice issues in relation to the case study below. Your work should be structured as a report using the headings suggested. You should take a critical approach in applying relevant theoretical perspectives, policy and legislation, and anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice. Where appropriate, you should make reference to relevant research to support your arguments.

You are afforded the opportunity to develop your thinking around social work practice and you are required to break down the practice issues into discrete areas.

The following key areas you should draw on.

Block 8, Learning Guide 21 introduces you to mental health issues, including:

service users’ perspectives; social exclusion; and experiences of discrimination and stigma
changes in mental health policy over time, including community/ social responses to mental health issues
competing professional perspectives, including the biomedical model of psychiatry and the social model of social work
anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice (building on K832 introductory learning guide, and learning guides 6 and 7); the empowerment approach
social work and mental health advocacy.

Block 8, Learning Guide 22 shifts the focus to the role of the social worker in the provision of a range of mental health services, including:
key legislation and the concept of capacity/incapacity
examples of working with different groups of service users
supporting carers
strengths-based and recovery models
professional power and authority.

Block 8, Learning Guide 23 is focussed on the particular needs of people with mental health problems who present a risk to themselves or others, including:

compulsory detention in hospital
risks of suicide and self-harm; risk management; crisis intervention theory
the policy impact of social attitudes about mental illness and ‘dangerousness’
dual diagnosis and working with service users experiencing both substance misuse and mental health problems.

Read the case study below and answer the questions that follow it within your report.

Case Study

Family: Mr Toner (aged 47), Mrs Toner (aged 38), Eliza (19), Mark (17) and Shona (14).
You are a social worker in a crisis resolution home treatment team. Your remit is to provide intensive input to prevent high-risk clients from entering psychiatric hospital.

You have been contacted by Mr and Mrs Toner. They are the parents of Mark Toner. Mark is 17 years old and of mixed parentage (Mr Toner is Black Caribbean and Mrs Toner is White British). Mark appeared a happy and popular young person until about a year and a half ago. Since that time he has become increasingly withdrawn, spending long periods in his room and smoking cannabis fairly heavily.

At 16, Mark was diagnosed with schizophrenia, possibly cannabis induced, after he was found wandering and disoriented in his home town. The police officers who found Mark reported that he was very frightened, and appeared to believe that groups of both white people (such as the BNP) and black people (such as the Nation of Islam) were after him. He felt that his mixed heritage combined the best of both races and this was why he was a target.
Mark was taken to hospital and responded relatively well to medication (though he did not like it because it made him feel sluggish and depressed).
He went home after four weeks. Since then Mark has lived at home. He has had several jobs but has not managed to keep them for long. He has considered college and apprenticeships but has not followed through on any of these.

His mother reports that he has again been smoking cannabis and she is not sure if he is taking his prescribed medication.
She has now phoned to say that Mark has been speaking about the BNP and the Nation of Islam again. The situation was assessed by an approved mental health professional (AMHP)/a mental health officer (Scotland). The AMHP/a mental health officer (Scotland) felt that the situation was serious, but did not meet the criteria for detention. Furthermore, they advised that Mark had some insight and willingness to work with professionals and wanted to stay in his home to prevent hospital admission. You have been allocated to work with Mark and his parents intensively over the next two weeks.

You should prepare a report that addresses the areas for consideration listed below; and it is suggested that you use the following headings:

Practice issues
Relevant theoretical perspectives
The policy and legislative context
Anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice
Social work values and ethical practice
Strategies for effective inter-professional working

Conclusion and recommendations

Use your own judgement when allocating the word length across sections, while giving sufficient attention to each aspect.
What are the main practice issues?

In this section, you should introduce and summarise the main safeguarding and risk-management issues raised by the case study. You should also highlight issues related to social work values and ethical practice, and to inter-professional working.

What theoretical perspectives might you consider and why?

Here you should apply critical analysis skills to evaluate and offer a synopsis of relevant literature, for example, picking out and critiquing one or two perspectives that you consider to be most applicable to the case study and that would support your practice.

What is the policy and legislative context?
In this section, you should critically analyse and discuss the implications and the impact of policy and law related to mental health, substance use, rights of carers and any other legislation and policy of relevance to the case study (and in your practice environment). You will need to show your knowledge of law and policy, but try to avoid simply describing it. Instead, consider the relationship between policy and legislation, and the integration of social work values and anti-oppressive practice.

Consider anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice

Your answer should aim to demonstrate your reflection on theories and values to discuss (not simply describe) the implications for anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practice. What theories help understanding of the issues raised in this case study? In practising in an anti-discriminatory manner, how do social work values underpin practice in order to tackle discrimination and empower Mark and his family?

Discuss the case study in relation to social work values and ethical practice

What ethical dilemmas and conflicts of interest does this case study present? Is there an order of priority and why? Who determines this and what issues does this raise? How might this impact on the individual/family/community? What helps in your consideration of ethical dilemmas and social work practice?

Inter-professional working

Who would you work with and why? What barriers might there be to effective inter-professional working? How might these be overcome? How might social work values and good practice guidance help in this process? Throughout this section, you should refer to and reflect upon relevant literature in this area to support your answer.

Conclusion and recommendations

As described in the case study, you (the social worker) have been allocated to work with Mark and his parents intensively over the next two weeks. In this section, therefore, you should briefly draw together the main threads and arguments addressed in your report and explain what steps you would plan to take in working with Mark and his parents. Your planned intervention should be informed by your analysis of the areas posed in the questions above.

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