ABSTRACT
There is no shortage of ‘received wisdom’ about the quality and quantity of mental health social work currently undertaken. This statement at the beginning of the first major study of mental health social work for over fifteen years indicates the considerable amount of diverse opinion which has been expressed in the United Kingdom on this topic. However, it should be noted that social workers have gone through early developmental processes like other human beings. Over half of the social workers interviewed in a recent survey in Strathclyde believed they were either only partially equipped or not equipped to work with mental health problems (Strathclyde Regional Council Social Work Department 1985). Some of the most recent literature in the social work journals has encouraged social workers to take a negative view of their skills.
