ABSTRACT
A patient may have used short-term help on one occasion, or long-term help on others and, at yet other times, assessment and clarification may have been all that was required. Only seventy-one patients came into this 'high user' category, but as they took up proportionately twice as much social work time as any other group of patients. As a typical example, and one which illustrates the ups and downs of such work, author want to describe the longest case in the project. His anger towards her did not worry the social worker unduly, as she could sense the desperation behind it, but she was worried by the hatred he showed towards his wife. In the following weeks the social worker and the general practitioner became very worried about the physical and emotional debility of the wife who, apart from caring for the baby, did little except sit in her husband's room which was exactly as he had left it.
