The Approved Social Worker’s Guide to Psychiatry and Medication

Robert Brown is a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University and was a Founding Director of Edge Training and Consultancy Limited. He was a Mental Health Act Commissioner from 1992 until 2010. He provides refresher training for Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs) and Best Interest Assessors (BIAs) and contributes to the training of section 12 approved doctors and Approved Clinicians in South West England and Wales. He provides consultation and supervision for the AMHPs/BIAs in the Deprivation of Liberty Team in Cornwall. Rob also provides consultation to Lead AMHPs in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Lambeth, Portsmouth and West Berkshire. He has published widely in the field of mental health and mental capacity law. Gwen Adshead is a Consultant Psychiatrist at Broadmoor Hospital and lectures at St George’s Hospital in London. Alan Pollard is Chief Pharmacist at the Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and teaches on ASW courses.

The importance of psychiatry and medication for ASWs
Psychiatrists’ training and how they practice
An overview of psychiatry and classification
Psychotic disorders
Neurotic disorders, substance abuse and personality disorders
Forensic psychiatry
Psychiatry of old age
Psychiatry and risk assessment
Patients as parents
Child and adolescent psychiatry
Treatment issues in psychiatry
Classification of medication in psychiatry
Anti-depressants and mood stabilisers
Anti-psychotics
Anxiolytics, sedative/hypnotics, substance abuse
Older adults, children, unlicensed drugs
The law and psychiatric treatment
Consent and capacity under the Mental Capacity Act 2005