People with mental health conditions and society in community psychiatry: What role does systemic social work play this?

As early as the mid-19th century, a large number of doctors were exploring the concept of 'social medicine' and analysing the effects of industrialisation and urbanisation on health (see Rössler, 2013, p. 23). Currently, community psychiatry has set itself the task of viewing psychosocial and neurobiological approaches not as separate entities, as was previously the case, but as interconnected perspectives. The focus is on the 'empowerment approach' and the investigation of, for example, decision-making processes, self-perception and affect regulation using multimodal techniques. Nevertheless, it is essential to always take into account the individuality, self-autonomy, (inter)subjectivity and social embeddedness of each person (cf. Kumbier, Haack, Hoff 2013, p. 45).