CONTENTS


OPINION


UPDATE


PRACTICE


BOOKS


on a biological modality. That is a huge, huge problem I believe.’ Rob acknowledges that one barrier to the


greater use of social care in mental health has been the paucity of its own evidence base. Although psychiatrists can (and do) point to a bulging literature of randomised controlled drug trials, social care interventions have proved less amenable to empirical study. But this may be about to change. The


Connecting People study, now piloting a social care intervention for people with mental health problems, has just completed its recruitment phase in 15 sites across England. The next stage is to conduct follow-up interviews to assess whether the intervention is eff ective. Connecting People uses a multidisciplinary


approach designed to improve ‘social capital’ – people’s links to social and community- based services and networks. ‘It’s more than just an intervention,’ says


Rob, who is leading the pilot in Lincolnshire. ‘It’s an overall framework of how social workers, other professionals and services work with people with mental health needs.’ Working to a model devised by Martin


THECOLLEGEOFSOCIALWORKMAGAZINE 9


Webber, director of the Centre for Mental Health Social Research at York University, practitioners are encouraged to form equal and empathetic partnerships with service users and help reduce their social exclusion. ‘It’s quite a complex model, but it’s


basically a practitioner and a service user going on a journey together to understand what’s happening inside somebody’s life and increase their social connectivity,’ says Rob. Of course, tackling social exclusion is


hardly a radical idea in social care and Rob readily admits that many social workers will be doing this already. The importance of Connecting People is that it collects data which will then be measured against outcomes. ‘I don’t think this is as much about changing social workers’ practice as making


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22