Social work and mental health - Peter Gilbert

Social Work and Mental Health: The Value of Everything is the new edition of Peter Gilbert's The Value of Everything: Social Work and its Importance in the Field of Mental Health (Russell House Publishing, 2003), which was acclaimed: "A clear guide...a useful tool for increasing understanding between all stakeholder groups in mental health." - Mental Health Today / "The author's breadth of knowledge makes the book accessible and informative at all levels of enquiry." - Community Care / "The service user and carer perspective is featured heavily, and their accounts and those of mental health staff are used liberally to illustrate why the social work role will continue to be of central importance...insightful and interesting." - Care & Health *** This new edition maintains the focus on the values that social work espouses as a profession, and its value in current mental health services. New chapters have been added around: social inclusion, personalization, research, the role of the social worker following new UK mental health legislation in 2005 and 2007, and an overview of policy up to the current time. The book celebrates and promotes multi-disciplinary work and the integration of perspectives. It sets social work as a major contributor to the truly whole-person and whole-systems approach to mental health. It values those who use mental health services as people with their own unique strengths, needs, and experiences. Social Work and Mental Health provides clear theoretical frameworks that enable social workers to recognize the capacities of service users. The issues of identity and equality are addressed. Additionally, the book discusses the merits of different models for understanding and working with mental or emotional distress. Research and ideas drawn from sociology, psychiatry, psychology, and even economics emphasize how social work is able to utilize the best of everything that is available for the service users' and carers' benefit.