ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the typical features of a mental health care provider's work. It explains how someone learns to deal with unusually high degree of emotional involvement with clients, especially if they must also work in public bureaucracies with too few resources and a myriad of demands from the community. The book describes a sociological analysis of mental health care work. It emphasizes the interaction of professionally generated norms which guide interactions between providers and their clients, and the organizational contexts in which care is given. The book examines the practical knowledge of front-line mental health workers, and will contribute to an understanding of the factors that influence treatment decisions and actions. It analyzes the ways in which shifting institutional frameworks shape mental health care and the work of mental health care providers.
