Mental Health and Substance Abuse

This area concerns social work and services for mental illness and substance use — treatment, recovery, and the social context of these problems.

Scope

It covers community mental health, the social model of mental illness, addiction and recovery, and mental-health policy and services.

Core questions

• How should mental illness and addiction be understood and treated?
• What is the role of social context in mental health?
• How can services support recovery?
• How has mental-health care been deinstitutionalized?

Key concepts

• Community mental health
• Total institutions
• Deinstitutionalization
• Disease model of addiction
• Recovery
• Stigma

Key theories

Total institutions

Goffman's analysis of asylums exposed the effects of institutionalization and fueled deinstitutionalization.

The disease concept of addiction

Jellinek framed alcoholism as a disease, shaping treatment approaches.

History

Social work in mental health and addiction was shaped by critiques of institutions (Goffman), the disease model of addiction (Jellinek), and the shift to community-based care and recovery.

Debates

Disease versus social models

Whether mental illness and addiction are best understood as diseases or as socially shaped conditions.

Key figures

• Erving Goffman
• E. M. Jellinek

Seminal works

• goffman-1961
• jellinek-1960

Frequently asked questions

What is a total institution?

Goffman's term for a place (like an asylum or prison) where people live under a single authority cut off from wider society.