ABSTRACT
IN this chapter we shall be concerned with the work history of psychiatric social workers, with the general question, what happens to such workers after they finish training. There are several different fields open to them after qualification both within and outside the field of mental health, and in view of the heavy demands made on the mental health services their actual distribution between these services is of considerable interest. Are psychiatric social workers responding equally to child guidance, the mental hospital and the local authority community care service or is one service receiving a much greater proportion than the others? Are the services ‘deprived’ by workers going into other fields of social work, into research, or university teaching other than the training of psychiatric workers? These questions are important from the point of view of the use made by society of its social work manpower. Equally important from the point of view of both psychiatric social workers and their clients is the question of mobility between fields of work and particular jobs within each field. Psychiatric social workers have continually stressed the insufficiency of a training of one year’s duration. Irvine, for example, has recently drawn attention to ‘such modest equipment of insight and skill as one can hope to acquire in one crowded year.’ 1 It has been assumed that much of the experience on the Courses would be consolidated by continuous practice in one post, possibly with general help or actual supervision from a senior colleague. The Scottish Branch of the Association at one point recommended that a period of four years in a first job would probably be required before the full benefits of training were apparent. It is obviously difficult to state precisely the length of time required, but the problem of consolidation of the training is real and if there is considerable mobility in the years after training one solution is rendered useless.
