© British Association of Social Workers
A Unitary Approach to the Care of the Hospitalised Elderly Mentally III
Veronica Coulshed, who has been a lecturer in social work at Liverpool Polytechnic since 1976, has worked in local authority and hospital social work departments. From 1971–1975 she was principal social worker for a group of hospitals.
Summary
This is a descriptive account of social work intervention on a psychogeriatric ward over a period of five months. The worker perceived a need for closer relationships amongst members of the client system—the patients, their relatives and ward staff. The selected targets for change were the patients and the nursing system. The author, as major change agent, worked a longside the nurses in forming an action system whose long term goals were to enhance ward morale and consequently standards of patient care. The methods of intervention were twofold; the worker enlisted the skills of a psychologist who taught the techniques of Reality Orientation therapy for patient rehabilitation, and simultaneously the worker, acting as leader consultant, set up weekly staff group meetings where literature on ageing was read and discussed, resulting in increased a wareness of the needs of the client system. Both strategies are considered for enriching the quality of life and improving working conditions in low turnover institutions where opportunities for staff/patient interaction are at a maximum.