The role of social work in the field of mental health: dual diagnoses as a challenge for social workers

Abstract

This paper provides a discussion about the relevance of medical terminology within the social work context. The authors use the example of dual diagnoses to argue for less stigmatised attitudes toward people who become, in the process of help, labelled as people with dual diagnoses. It sets out that using medical terminology in the field of social work is more often a strategy to exclude people from the system of help than as a moment of providing adequate help. It is concluded that social workers do not need the knowledge about diagnoses – knowing the diagnosis is important only as information that illustrates users’ specific experience and perception of reality, the available resources and obstacles that people face in their everyday life. The planning of a social work intervention should be based on an operational definition of everyday life, e.g. how people live through the day, what are the important and valued roles they play in life, what are their wishes and needs.

Prispevek problematizira uporabnost medicinske terminologije v okviru socialno delavskega konteksta. Avtorici se zavzemata, da skozi procese pomoči ljudem, ki jim je bila nalepljena dvojna diagnoza, ne bi prispevali k stigmatizaciji. Uporaba medicinske terminologije na področju socialnega dela je pogosteje strategija izključevanja ljudi iz sistema pomoči kot pa trenutek oskrbovanja s primerno obliko pomoči. Avtorici zaključujeta, da socialni delavci ne potrebujejo znanja o diagnozah. Diagnoze so pomembe samo kot informacija, ki ilustria specifične izkušnje uporabnikov in njihovo zaznavanje realnosti, razpolžljivih virov in over, ki jih imajo v vsakdanjem življenju. Načrtovanje intervencij v socialnem delu mora biti utemeljeno na operacionaliziranih definicijah vsakdanjega življenja uporabnikov storitev pomoč, kot npr.: kako preživeti dan, katere so za njih pomembne in cenjene vloge v življenju, kakšne so njihove želje in potrebe.

Keywords:

• social work
• mental health
• dual diagnosis
• stigma
• needs
• everyday life

Kljuˇne besede:

• socialno delo
• duševno zdravje
• dvojna diagnoza
• stigma
• potrebe
• vsakdanje življenje