ABSTRACT
Social services departments in Great Britain cost the taxpayer £5,591 million in 1991, approximately £100 for every man, woman and child. At £2 a person a week, you may be surprised it is so little. Social workers are responsible for providing a range of services (including counselling) to children and families, disabled people, the elderly, and people who are mentally ill. Social workers deal directly and indirectly with human growth and development, dependency, transference and counter-transference, and unconscious processes in individuals and organisations; yet the relationship between social work and psychotherapy is an uncomfortable one. The reasons for this, and some of the implications, will be considered in this chapter.
