Unconscious Aspects of Statutory Mental Health Social Work: Emotional Labour and the Approved Mental Health Professional

Abstract

In November 2008 the statutory role of the Approved Social Worker (ASW) in the UK came to an end, and a new role Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) was created. This paper is based on qualitative data gathered from Approved Social Workers (ASWs) in relation to the roles, tasks and skills they felt were required in order to perform statutory mental health duties. Existing ASWs were interviewed immediately prior to the transition from ASW to AMHP in order to capture the point of change and try and understand the complexities of their existing statutory role and how they related emotionally to the tasks of mental health social work. Emergent data indicated that both containment and emotional labour were key unspoken or unconscious components of the work and likely to be required of the new professional group of AMHPs as well.

Keywords:

• Approved Social Work
• Approved Mental Health Professional
• mental health
• emotional labour
• legislation