Mental Disorders, Medications, and Clinical Social Work

Rating:
Summary: A helpful learning tool
Review: I am an MSW student and have found this book extremely helpful as I concomitantly study the DSM-IV-TR. Combining the reading of, for example, anxiety disorders in the DSM with Austrian's chapter on anxiety disorders helps clarify assessment criteria. I don't believe the purpose of her book is to discuss the shortfalls of the DSM but rather to aid social workers in gaining a better grasp of its contents. I see her introduction as a disclaimer. The DSM is a necessary evil - whether we like it or not, many of us work in environments where its use is unavoidable. Given that, Austrian provides her opinion, rightfully in the introduction, and then gets down to business with the purpose of the book. I do recommend this book for people wanting to learn, but can't speak for those who feel they have already learned it all.

Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment
Review: I was excited to find this volume, thinking that it would provide me with information to provide accurate and complete assessments of persons with mental illnesses, or mental disorders, as the book labels them. The introduction advises the social worker that classification systems are not compatible with complete, psychosocial assessments that social workers are trained to do. The author discusses how social workers have moved from linear approaches to client problems to the ecosystems approach, which, in her opinion, will help the clinical social worker develop a more inclusive assessment and help the worker and client select more appropriate interventions. She ends the introduction imploring social workers to "be true to the purpose of our profession, and not fall into the classification trap" (pg. 8). She then proceeds, without irony, to descrbe the current DSM-IV classifications of anxiety, mood, somatoform & fictitious, dissociative, substance-related, and eating disorders, as well as schizophrenia, delirium, dementia, and amnestic and other cogntive disorders. It is unclear how she has integrated the ecosystems approach into these chapters, but she does instruct on how the disorders are diagnosed. These chapters will certainly be useful to beginning practitioners and students who need to learn the differences between the disorders, as well as some basic information on psychosocial interventions. However, I feel the author has missed an opportunity to clearly differentiate clinical social work from the other mental health professions. The book starts out as a treatise for why the DSM-IV should not be a tool for social workers to use in their assessments, then attempts to teach them how to diagnose the disorders according to that very same book. I would recommend that social workers instead read Herb Kutchins and Stuart A. Kirk's "Making Us Crazy," which clearly demonstrates that social workers and other practitioners that the DSM is a flawed tool.

The chapter on medications will also be helpful for beginners, as it talks about the different types of medications, what they are used for, and the side effects expected from the medications. However, Kia J. Bentley and J. Michael Walsh's "The Social Worker and Psychotropic Medication: Toward Effective Collaboration with Mental Health Clients, Families, and Providers" does a far better job of describing the social worker's role with medication in the mental health field.

This work is hailed on the cover as the first of its kind and indispensable, yet I find it flawed for any but the most beginning of practitioners. Social workers looking for more than the party line must look elsewhere. Therefore, I cannot recommend this book.