The dynamic use of the psychiatric social worker's services within the clinical team.

Initial psychiatric family studies.

“…Furthermore, these records indicated that in most of these cases, the de cision for treatment had been made on the basis of the mother's conscious wish fo r treatment fo r the child and the theoretical treatability of the child, without taking into consideration the fa ther, who was not seen until treat ment of mother and child was well under way. Finally it seemed in retrospect that therapy carried out within an optimal treatment scheme based upon an understanding of the family interrelationships might have been effective in many of these cases (8,9,12,13). In some instances, an application of the traditional child guidance treatment scheme, by which social workers see mothers and psychiatrists see children, appeared insufficient, ineffectual, perhaps even contraindicated (7,15).…”

Professional relations and the public interest.

“…The psychiatrist might question the social worker's function in therapy and around we could go. The ideal working relationship is proposed by Fritz Schmidl (36), who describes how a specific clinic attempts to use the members of the clinical team on the basis of the needs of each individual client rather than on the basis of a theoretical conviction as to the functions of the professions represented.…”