Social workers provide more mental health services than any other profession, yet recent biomedical trends in psychiatry appear to minimize the importance of their traditional concerns, which focus on the social environment that accompanies mental disorders and their treatment.

Introduction: Critical Perspectives, by Stuart A. Kirk Assessment and Diagnosis Balancing act: Assessing strengths in mental health practice, by Dennis Saleebey The Social Context of Interventions The limits of diagnostic criteria: The role of social context in clinicians'judgments of mental disorder, by Derek Hsieh, Stuart A. Kirk Evidence-Guided Practice Mapping practice: Assessment, context, and social justice, by Mark Mattaini Psychotherapy and Social Work Disorders versus problems in living in DSM: Rethinking social work's relationship to psychiatry, by Jerry C. Wakefield Questioning Psychiatric Medications Diagnosis-an act of faith: The probabilistic nature of diagnosis, by William R. Nugent Ethics, Laws, And Regulations Assessing the scientific status of schizophrenia, by John Bola, Deborah Pitts To stem the tide of degeneracy: The eugenic impulse in social work, by Amy LaPan, Tony Platt Assertive Community Treatment: The case against the "best tested" evidence-based community treatment for severe mental illness, by Tomi Gomory Empowerment-The foundation for social work practice in mental health, by Stephen M. Rose Self-help mental health agencies, by Steven P. Segal Power, gender, and the self: Reflections on improving mental health for males and females, by Sarah Rosenfield, Kathy Pottick Evidence-based practice: Breakthrough or buzzword?, by William J. Reid, Julanne Colvin Critical thinking, evidence-based practice and mental health, by Eileen Gambrill Mental health and practice guidelines: Panacea or pipedream?, by Matthew O. Howard, Tonya Edmond, Michael G. Vaughn Putting Humpty together again: Treatment of mental disorders and pursuit of justice in social workis mission, by Jerry C. Wakefield The problem of psychotherapy in social work, by William Epstein The misfortunes of behavioral social work: Misprized, misread, and misconstrued, by Bruce A. Thyer Clinical psychopharmacology trials: "Gold standard" or foolis gold?, by David Cohen Treatment of newly diagnosed psychosis without anti-psychotic drugs: The Soteria project, by John Bola, Loren Mosher, David Cohen Psychosocial side effects of drug treatment of youth, by Tally Moses, Stuart A. Kirk Social work, mental health, and mental disorders: The ethical dimensions, by Frederic Reamer Managed care and mental health, by Kevin Corcoran, Stephen Gorin, Cynthia Moniz Involuntary medications of the mentally ill: Continuing controversy, changing scene, by Donald Dickson

Social workers provide more mental health services than any other profession, yet recent biomedical trends in psychiatry appear to minimize the importance of their traditional concerns, which focus on the social environment that accompanies mental disorders and their treatment. This book calls attention to this emerging problem and challenges social workers and other health care professionals to be more skeptical about diagnosis, community treatment, evidence-based practice, psychotherapy, medications, and managed care.