Think Ahead Public Perceptions of Mental Health Social Workers Survey

Survey of GB adults on behalf of Think Ahead on their perceptions of social workers as providers of mental health.

Only two in five (41%) British adults think of social workers as important providers of mental health support – whereas 69% identify psychiatrists and 65% identified GPs.

Only a third of people know that social workers are usually involved in deciding whether someone should be detained under the Mental Health Act (33%), or that they often give evidence in legal proceedings (33%), and just less than half know that they can help to find accommodation (47%), get funding for people in financial difficulty (43%), or provide talking therapies (48%) as part of their core role.

Over a quarter of British adults mistakenly think that mental health social workers provide personal care like washing and dressing (27%) or do household jobs like cooking and cleaning (29%), and three in ten (30%) think that they provide childcare.

Date Published: 16/03/2017

Categories: Health | Public and communities | Social

Client: Think Ahead

Methodology

ComRes interviewed 2,033 British adults online between 3-5 March 2017. The sample was split into sample A (1,010 respondents) and sample B (1,023 respondents) for some questions. Data was weighted to be representation of all adults in Great Britain aged 18+ by age, gender and region.