You are a member of an inter-disciplinary team at a regional psychiatric hospital that evaluates the status of patients, their compliance with medication, their ability to manage their medication on their own, and the length of their stay. Managed care has imposed strict constraints on the length of stay and, therefore, the well-being and outcome for patients lays in the decision-making of the team of professionals. Among the professionals on the team are: you, a social worker, your supervisor, also a social worker, a psychiatrist, a psychiatric nurse, and the discharge planner.
There is a history of conflict amongst the team members and you have come to notice that your supervisor is frequently advocating for an early release for patients whom you believe require more time to reconstitute from the decline in their illness. He is a senior member of the team and his allies on the team are the psychiatrist and the discharge planner. The psychiatric nurse often aligns herself with your position, advocating for more time. You have concerns that the hospital has taken a strong position that moving the patients out quickly is beneficial to the bottom line, but you notice there is a greater rate of recidivism when they leave too soon.
You feel the values of your profession are being challenged and you are unsure how to address the conflict. In addition, you have a personal stake in helping those with mental illness as your brother was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and did not receive the care he needed until it was too late and took his own life.
This is, therefore, both a personal and professional dilemma involving a colleague. Please read this carefully and respond to the following questions:
- Describe the dilemma from a personal and a professional perspective in two to three sentences.
- What are your obligations? Use the literature to ground your position, including the NASW Code of Ethics
- What obligation do you have to your colleague? How do you begin to approach the dilemma with your colleague?
- How do you mediate the personal conflict in order that you may work on behalf of your clients/
Sample Solution