Social work, the sociological imagination and the social determinants of mental health: A study of mental health social work practice in multi-disciplinary settings

Lomax, Robert

Abstract

This study explored how social workers working within one English NHS trust understood the impact of the social determinants of mental health, and mental health inequalities, on the experiences of service users. The study used the concept of the sociological imagination, developed by C. Wright Mills (1959), to explore participants’ ways of thinking about the factors that cause and maintain mental distress.

Early findings about organisational context, role, and the experience of multi-disciplinary working, shaped the focus of data analysis. Social workers who participated in this research were employed in one of two types of organisations: a local authority or an NHS trust. Which organisation employed them, which they worked in day-to-day, and if they were employed as social workers or generic mental health practitioners appeared to influence their identity, practice and experience of multi-disciplinary working.

Cross-sectional research design enabled the collection of detailed qualitative data. Twenty-one social workers participated in semi-structured interviews about their practice. The interviews included participants responding to the circumstances of fictional characters outlined in three textual vignettes. Thematic data analysis was undertaken, and data themes were identified. Theories by Freidson (2001) and Bourdieu (1977) were used, in addition to Mills’ (1959) concept of the sociological imagination, to analyse the data.

Participants were aware of the impact of the social determinants of mental health. How participants translated that awareness into their practice appeared to be influenced by the vividness of their essential imaginations, by the mediating impact of their organisational and employment context, and by the role and strength of their professional identity and capital in multi-disciplinary environments.

The study concludes by considering whether the concept of the sociological imagination can be further developed to enable social workers to give a comprehensive sociological explanation about the impact of the social determinants of mental health.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Dec 11, 2024
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/13523927
• External URL: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/174053
• Award Date: Nov 19, 2024