Telling the diagnosis: implications for social work practice.

If families are to provide de-institutionalized psychiatric patients with primary care in the community, it is necessary to provide them with the skills, background and motivation to deal with the multitude of problems that chronic mental patients present. Families do best when they have a sense of cognitive mastery about all aspects of the family member's illness, but not all practitioners are comfortable about discussing or revealing such information. This paper surveys the attitude of social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists as it applies to utilizing the diagnosis in treatment.