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BJSW Advance Access originally published online on March 17, 2007
British Journal of Social Work 2007 37(3):423-439; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcm021
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

Shaping the Future of Mental Health Policy and Legislation in Northern Ireland: The Impact of Service User and Professional Social Work Discourses

George Wilson and Martin Daly

George Wilson is a lecturer in social work at Queen’s University, Belfast, where he is involved in qualifying and post-qualifying training and research into mental health social work and education. He has previous experience as an approved social worker and, prior to moving to Queen’s University in 2000, was employed as lead trainer in mental health for the Southern Health and Social Services Board in Northern Ireland.

Martin Daly is employed as co-ordinator with the Lamp organization, which is an independent, user-led organization. The group’s role is to provide input to the planning and delivery of mental health services but it also provides advocacy and listening-ear services for those with a mental health problem. Martin is a member of the Steering Committee of the current Bamford Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability (Northern Ireland).

Correspondence to George Wilson, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queen’s University, Belfast. E-mail: g.wilson{at}qub.ac.uk

This paper explores the complex interrelationship between service user and professional social work discourses and provides a critical commentary on their respective contributions to the recent review of mental health policy and legislation in Northern Ireland. The analysis indicates that dominant trends in mental health care, as mediated through service structures and institutional identities, have tended to prioritize the more coercive aspects of the social work role and reinforce existing power inequalities with service users. It is argued that such developments underline the need for a ‘re-focusing’ debate in mental health social work to consider how a more appropriate balance can be achieved between its participatory/empowering and regulatory/coercive functions. Whilst highlighting both congruence and dissonance between respective discourses, the paper concludes that opportunities exist within the current change process for service users and social workers to build closer alliances in working together to reconstruct practice, safeguard human rights and develop innovative alternatives to a traditional bio-medical model of treatment.

Keywords: mental health, service user, social work, discourses


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