Power and Control in Mental Health Social Work: Community Care and Involuntary Intervention

Power and control sit at the heart of statutory social work. In a profession grounded in social justice, practices of control are often positioned as reinforcing inequality and oppression. Yet normative critiques of control embedded within conflictual theories of power can lead to overlooking the complex realities of everyday practice.

Drawing on practitioner and service user interviews, case file analysis and detailed observations, this book offers a rare ethnographic account of how contro...