The Social Worker and Psychotropic Medication: Toward Effective Collaboration With Mental Health Clients, Families, and Providers

Presenting material within a contemporary framework of "partnership" practice that is rich with case examples, this up-to-date primer on psychopharmacology and psychosocial interventions serves as a useful resource for social work students and practitioners as they expand their daily roles in psychiatric medication management. Bentley and Walsh present all the facts, myths, and relevant information about psychotropic medication in an easy-to-access manner. Content on a variety of topics, including expanded coverage of children and adolescents, helps readers become more responsive to the medication-related concerns of mental health clients and work more collaboratively on these issues with families and other mental health care providers. Data from the authors' national survey of randomly selected NASW members provides readers with the information they need to be aware, articulate, and active with respect to clients' medication-related dilemmas, but also mindful of the sociopolitical context of prescription practice in psychiatry.

Dr. Kia J. Bentley is a licensed clinical social worker, tenured professor, and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she has taught since 1989. Her current teaching focuses on mental health and mental illness, psychopharmacotherapy and social work, clinical theory, and research. She is consulting editor for The Journal of Social Work Education and chapter member of the editorial board of Best Practices in Mental Health. In Virginia, she is the chair of the Human Rights Committee of Central State Hospital. She is the author of another Cengage Brooks/Cole text, SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE IN MENTAL HEALTH: CONTEMPORARY ROLES, TASKS, AND TECHNIQUES AND PSYCHIATRIC MEDICATION ISSUES FOR SOCIAL WORKERS, as well as COUNSELORS AND PSYCHOLOGISTS (2003, HAWORTH).

Joseph Walsh received his MSW and his Ph.D. from Ohio State University. He is Associate Professor of Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University and teaches courses in generalist practice, clinical practice, research, and mental and emotional disorders. He has been a direct services practitioner in the field of mental health since 1974, first in a psychiatric hospital and later in community mental health center settings. Joe has provided services to older adult and general outpatient populations, but he specializes in services to people with serious mental illness and their families. He is the author of two other Brooks/Cole texts, CLINICAL CASE MANAGEMENT WITH PERSONS HAVING MENTAL ILLNESS and THEORIES FOR DIRECT SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE.