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38 J. Soc. & Soc. Welfare 135 (2011)
Clinical Social Work and the Biomedical Industrial Complex

handle is hein.journals/jrlsasw38 and id is 737 raw text is: Clinical Social Work and the Biomedical Industrial Complex Tomi GOMORY Florida State University College of Social Work STEPHEN E. WONG DAVID COHEN Florida International University School of Social Work JEFFREY R. LACASSE Arizona State University School of Social Work This article examines how the biomedical industrial complex has ensnared social work within a foreign conceptual and practice model that distracts clinical social workers from the special assis- tance that they can provide for people with mental distress and misbehavior. We discuss: (1) social work's assimilation of psychi- atric perspectives and practices during its pursuit of professional status; (2) the persistence of psychiatric hospitalization despite its coercive methods, high cost, and doubtful efficacy; (3) the increas- ing reliance on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, despite its widely acknowledged scientific frailty; and (4) the questionable contributions of psychoactive drugs to clinical mental health outcomes and their vast profits for the pharmaceu- tical industry, using antipsychotic drugs as a case example. We review a number of promising social work interventions overshad- owed by the biomedical approach. We urge social work and other helping professions to exercise intellectual independence from the reigning paternalistic drug-centered biomedical ideology in mental health and to rededicate themselves to the supportive, edu- cative, and problem-solving methods unique to their disciplines. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, December 2011, Volume XXXVIII, Number 4 135

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