Approved social workers

This article reports on the first extensive survey of Approved Social Worker (ASW) activity under the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986. The integrated health and social services organizational structure, the adverse effects on individual mental health of the legacy of thirty years of civil conflict and the move from hospital to community care are significant features which have influenced the delivery of mental health social work services locally.

Social Role Valorisation theory, advanced to enhance the lives of disadvantaged groups of people, has addressed community care and lay advocacy for patients and users but has ignored the roles of relatives and carers. [In this article, the term ‘patient’ is used to describe a person who is detained under the Mental Health Act, liable to be detained, or in hospital on an informal basis.

Argues why the nearest relative role has important lessons for the roles of the nominated person and carer which will replace it in the next Mental Health Act.