Social Perspectives in Mental Health offers new practice frameworks that help to make sense of people's mental distress and recovery in relation to their social experience. This interdisciplinary volume promotes a holistic approach to mental health practice, with an emphasis on recovery and empowerment, and on building on the experiences of service users. The contributors explore the impact of social factors, such as power, abuse, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, on the causes and experiences of mental health problems. It is also considered how concepts such as risk and recovery can be understood from a social perspective.Drawing on expertise from a wide range of academic, policy and practice settings as well as lived experience, this book is essential reading for practitioners, students and educators in the fields of mental health and social work.

Foreword, Judy Foster, Social Perspectives Network. Introduction, Jerry Tew, University of Central England. 1. Core Themes of Social Perspectives, Jerry Tew. 2. Social Approaches to Madness and Distress: User Perspectives and User Knowledges, Peter Beresford, Brunel University and Chair of Shaping our Lives. 3. Beyond Biomedical Models: A perspective from critical psychiatry, Duncan Double, Consultant psychiatrist, Hellesdon Hospital, Norwich. 4. Power Relations, Social Order and Mental Distress, Jerry Tew. 5. Social Capital and Mental Health, Martin Webber, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London. 6.The Social/Trauma Model - Mapping the Mental Health Consequences of Childhood Sexual Abuse and Similar Experiences, Sally Plumb, Mental Health Training Group, West Midlands. 7. Finding a Way Forward: A Black Perspective on Social Approaches to Mental Health, Peter Ferns, Independent Consultant. 8. Women's Mental Health: Taking Inequality into Account, Jennie Williams, Independent Consultant. 9. `The Sickness Label Infected Everything we Said': Lesbian and Gay Perspectives on Mental Distress, Sarah Carr, Social Care Institute for Excellence. 10. Approaches to Risk in Mental Health: A Multidisciplinary Discourse, Shulamit Ramon, Anglia Polytechnic University. 11. Recovery from Mental Breakdown, Jan Wallcraft, Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health and fellow for Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health Experts by Experience, National Institute for Mental Health in England. 12. Social Perspectives: Towards a Framework for Practice, Jerry Tew. Contributors. Subject Index. Author Index.