RSS 1.0Social Workers
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Research by social workers
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(Perspective): The Importance of strengthening the management system within mental health servicesWithin the civil and public service there are people appointed to managerial roles who have little or no training in management skills. Even where they have acquired the necessary skills, for example through their own initiative in attending a formal training programme, they commonly find themselves operating in a context where there are poor management processes, very patchy management tools and management role structures that are unfit for purpose. There are many problems with management structures in the health system generally and major weaknesses in all elements of the management system of the Mental Health Services (MHS) of the HSE. Managers are often not given the necessary delegated authority and, even if they are, people who are supposed to be accountable to their manager can simply refuse to accept that the manager has such authority over them, for example inappropriately citing ‘clinical independence.’ This article outlines the key management skills, tools, processes and structures that make up a coherent management system and argues that significant and sustained strengthening of the management system, will lead to a safer service, major cost savings, better service user outcomes and a higher job satisfaction among staff.
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Good governance-managing resilience at a strategic levelThe United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific defined “governance” as: the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented)1. The decisions that need to be implemented at a strategic level to build resilient social work organisations are identified. The author advocates the adoption of a strategic management framework to mature the processes by which decisions are implemented.
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Draw on your emotions: creative arts groupwork with adolescents attending a mental health serviceThis article describes two creative arts group interventions completed in a CAMHS clinic. Both authors work in the rewarding yet busy and challenging field of adolescent mental health. Following specialist training, we wanted to explore if groupwork using creative arts experiences could support young people attending CAMHS to make discoveries about their own well-being and promote positive mental health. The research results support positive qualitative and quantitative outcomes. We used writing this article as a means to summarise our learning and collate wider research on related topics.
