by Deona Hooper, MSW
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) is the book psychiatrist, clinical social workers, and other mental health professionals use to determine a mental health disorder. The latest edition, DSM V, is scheduled to be released sometime May 2013 after pushing back its released date on several occasions. It appears the pending DSM 5 is even more problematic than its previous versions. A huge blow was dealt to the pending publication when the National Institute of Mental Health withdrew its support according to Medical Daily.
The Association of Psychiatry is the primary authors of the DSM despite only serving 23% of all who seek mental health services. Other mental health professionals utilize the manual as the convening authority on mental health issues. There have been many complaints about some disorders not being supported by evidence-based studies, in addition there have been other concerns that some disorders are biased against minority populations. Clinical Social Workers provide 60% of all mental health services in the United States. However, social workers are often not invited to the table to discuss implementation of policies that overwhelming affect the vulnerable clients we serve. Will social workers embrace the DSM 5 or is it time to take the lead and create our own?
Social Work Podcast with Jonathan Singer did an interview on the proposed DSM 5 changes with Micki Washburn, LPC-S and Danielle Parrish, Ph.D. Here is an excerpt:
There’s an old saying, “What’s the fastest way to cure mental illness in an entire group of people? Get rid of the diagnosis.” The proposed changes to DSM-5 get rid of some diagnoses and add others. But that’s not all. If you’re like me, you have lots of questions about changes to DSM-5. When I posted the question “what would you like to know about the DSM-5” to the Social Work Podcast Facebook page 11 people responded in less than an hour and 20 people responded by the end of the day. So, what did they want to know? Jessica, Shelly, Sandy, Spring, Paul, and Suzannah wanted to know about autism, depression, and personality disorders. Shylah and Jen wanted to know about addictions. Lisa wanted to know what was up with ADHD. Ciarrai and Lyndon posed some great questions about the merits of DSM diagnosis in social work practice. Read Full Article
Listen to their Interview with Jonathan Singer Ph.D, LCSW
Also View:
Why Social Workers Should Oppose DSM-5 ~Psychology Today
