ROLES OF SOCIAL WORKERS, COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH NURSES AND COMMUNITY OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS WITHIN COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH TEAMS (CMHTS) 

Overall, CMHTs in the local area aim to promote wellbeing, recovery and better quality of life through:

• Providing high quality, evidence based treatment and care for service users
• Providing support that enables each service user to achieve their individual goals and aspirations
• Informing service users and carers about options for treatment and hence enable treatments to be a partnership guided by service user choice
• Providing information and support for service users and carers
• Helping service users to access a range of mainstream services, e.g. housing, employment or meaningful occupation, stable relationships, primary health care etc.
• Promoting holistic care taking account of physical as well as mental good health.

They work in partnership with service users and carers to agree a care plan which meets their needs and aspirations.  Members of the CMHT (including social workers, community mental health nurses and community occupational therapists) should ensure that service users and carers have the necessary information to allow them to make meaningful choices about the therapeutic interventions available.

There is often considerable overlap between the roles of social workers, community mental health nurses and occupational therapists within a community mental health team (CMHT); for example, care co-ordination activities will be similar whichever professional undertakes them.  CMHTs in different areas may function differently, for example, in some teams occupational therapists act as care co-ordinators in the same way as other team members whereas in others they undertake only specialist occupational therapy work.  In Bournemouth, Poole and South and East Dorset, CMHTs are integrated teams, meaning that health and social services are combined within and managed as one team.

Bearing the above in mind, a broad summary of each profession is given below.

Social workers
Qualified social workers are registered with the General Social Care Council, which has set out a Code of Practice for Social Care Workers setting out the conduct expected of them.

They may have additional qualifications, for example: in therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy, as approved mental health professionals (a specific role under the Mental Health Act), as adult protection investigators and as best interest assessors.

They act as care co-ordinators and lead professionals, as well as care managers for social care packages.  This entails various work, including: undertaking assessments, developing and implementing care plans, applying for direct payments and individual budgets, assessing and managing risk, liaising with other agencies, and writing reports for mental health review tribunals if someone on their caseload has been detained under the Mental Health Act and has appealed against their section.

Community mental health nurses
Community mental health nurses are registered mental health nurses, regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).  The NMC Code sets out standards of conduct, performance and ethics for nurses.

They may have additional qualifications, for example: cognitive behavioural therapy, family interventions in psychosis, and as approved mental health professionals (in practice, most approved mental health professionals in the local area are social workers).

They act as care co-ordinators and lead professionals, as well as care managers for social care packages.  This entails various work, including: undertaking assessments, developing and implementing care plans, applying for direct payments and individual budgets, assessing and managing risk, liaising with other agencies, and writing reports for mental health review tribunals if someone on their caseload has been detained under the Mental Health Act and has appealed against their section.

Unlike social workers or community occupational therapists, they administer medication by injection and monitor side effects of medication.

Community occupational therapists
Occupational therapists are registered with and regulated by the Health Professions Council, which sets out Standards of conduct, performance and ethics to which all occupational therapists must adhere.

They may have additional qualifications, for example: cognitive behavioural therapy, family interventions in psychosis, and as approved mental health professionals (as noted above, most approved mental health professionals in the local area are social workers).

In some CMHTs they act as care co-ordinators and lead professionals in the same way as community mental health nurses and social workers.

In other CMHTs they have a specific occupational therapy role.  Their focus is on how physical and mental health difficulties affect someone’s ability to function at home, socially and at work and help them to develop skills and confidence to participate in personal, domestic, social, work and leisure activities.  They may have a particular remit for supporting service users to return to paid or voluntary employment.