Resource Scarcity in Mental Health: Crisis or Opportunity for Social Work Education?

Abstract

This paper suggests that the funding crisis faced by mental health provides an opportunity for structural and policy changes that can benefit the entire system. The effect of increasing state control, trends in mental health treatment, new technologies, and changing higher education constituencies on social work education are examined. Stress is placed on the need for social worker educators to become more involved in the determination of state priorities and policies in order to shift the emphasis of mental health from institution to community, from medical model to psychosocial treatment, and from physician dominance to multidisciplinary control.