The purpose of this manual is to fill the void I encountered when I first began doing emergency room social work. After reading a mass of material on crisis theory, depression, suicide, psychiatric emergencies, etc., after having role played an emergency room crisis counselor, and after reviewing what seemed an infinite number of required hospital procedures, I began work as an emergency room social worker. The first few cases I encountered on my own were bewildering. When emergency room personnel would refer a patient to me with the prefatory remark: "This guy looks like he has real emotional problems. See what you can do”, I would nearly freeze as I wondered which form to fill out before seeing the patient, what questions to ask the patient, which theory to review before interviewing the patient. After the interview, I confronted the problem of deciding upon an appropriate referral, which forms to fill out, whom to confer with, etc. Frankly, the entire situation was pretty overwhelming to me.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (DPhil (Social Work))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Social Work / unrestricted