Simon Godefroy - Mental Health and Mental Capacity Law for Social Workers: An Introduction

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An Introduction

Simon Godefroy

This book is dedicated to the memory of my mother who died from bowel cancer at the age of 71. If it were not for her efforts to ensure I received a proper education, this book would not have been written. I was born partially deaf, something my mother really began to notice when my sister came along a couple of years later and started to learn to speak. However, she could not get doctors to listen to her concerns, and it was not until the age of four that I was diagnosed and fitted with ugly body-worn hearing aids. My parents were warned that I would leave school with no qualifications, something that was not acceptable to my mother. I was sent to a special school for deaf children at the age of five but by the age of eight, whilst I was able to speak, I did not know what the alphabet was. I was summarily transferred into mainstream education and my mother made me read a book a week for several years to bring my reading skills to the level of my peers. When I reached my teenage years she arranged for me to see a speech therapist for several years to ensure that I could communicate clearly in readiness for the world of work. I eventually managed to obtain two degrees and I am in the final stages of my third. If it was not for the determination of my late mother, I would not be where I am today and for that I owe her my eternal gratitude.

I have been inspired as a social worker and as an approved social worker/approved mental health professional by having the privilege to work as part of some dedicated and passionate mental health and social care teams in my career. Professionals in mental health and in social care rarely get the sort of acknowledgement they deserve. I want to thank all the staff of the Wokingham Community Mental Health Team which I have been proud to be a part of for ten years. Also to the staff of the Berkshire Emergency Duty Service who strive to provide a high-quality, integrated social work and social care service out of hours: thank you.

I also want to thank several people who have helped with the book. Thanks to Luke Block and Kate Wharton, Commissioning Editors at Sage, for taking a punt on a new author. I want to thank Helen Fairlie, my editor, whose advice, support and encouragement has been invaluable. Thanks are also due to my colleagues at Bournemouth University and others for their helpful comments and advice on chapters of the book: Louize Collins, Mark Veldmeijer, Jo Parker, Karen Paige and Gareth Davies. Thanks to Professor Jonathan Parker for his useful comments on the text.

Finally, but by no means least, I would like to thank my long-suffering partner Tony Short for his support and encouragement with the project, oh, and for designing the diagrams in .

This book aims to provide an introductory text for social workers, students on qualifying courses (as well as those on post-qualifying programmes) and other professionals on mental health and mental capacity law. Students, qualified social workers and other professionals can struggle with the complexities of mental health and mental capacity law (and law in general) and introductory textbooks are thin on the ground. There are books aimed at qualified and experienced mental health professionals as part of approved mental health professional and best interests assessor training but few for people starting out in this area of law.