ABSTRACT
This chapter and the next one should be read in conjunction with one another, since they both consider sociologically another key aspect of social work practice: community care. Community care social workers work in area teams, GP practices, hospitals and hospices with a wide range of service-users and their carers – older people, people with disabilities (both physical disabilities and learning disabilities), and people with mental health problems. Each user-group has its own individual issues that require specialist skills and knowledge, knowledge which is likely to draw on psychological and medical as well as sociological understanding. What brings these groups together, however, is the context in which they come to the attention of social work and social workers, that is, the context of community care. Chapters 5 and 6 are about that context: about the ways in which ideas of ‘community’ and ‘caring’ have influenced (and continue to influence) social work practice with older people, sick people, those with mental health problems and those with disabilities and their care-givers.
