In the graduation thesis I aim to find out whether social workers that work in different fields of centers for social work, feel competent working with people that are experiencing mental health problems. I research social workers' experiences in working with users with mental health problems, how they evaluate their feeling of competency, how the Faculty of social work prepared them for working with this population, what are their experiences with collaborating with coordinators of community treatment, and how they evaluate the support that is offered to them by centers for social work. In the literature overview, first I write about centers for social work, areas of work, services, and the users of the services. I also present the field of mental health in the centers for social work, and the work of coordinators of community treatment. Next, I write about the basic knowledge that every social worker should possess, regardless the field they work in. I present how the mental health social work is included in the education on the Faculty of social work, and what is the specialized knowledge that the students who choose contents connected to mental health acquire. Next, I write about the competence which are important when working with users who experience mental health issues. Here I also mention the perspective of the users who have experiences with mental health problems and social workers. Lastly, I discuss the stigma related to the field of mental health and the stigmatization occurring among social workers. In the graduation thesis I present the findings of my qualitative research in which I use the method of standardized interviews to collect data from ten social workers, employed in different fields inside centers for social work. The population of the research consists of social workers that are employed in centers for social work at least one year, and that are not the coordinators of community treatment. On the basis of the qualitative analysis of data I come to the conclusion that all social workers sometimes work with users that experience metal health problems, no matter the field they work in. Social workers, who during their studies, attended the module community mental health, or did practical studies in the field of mental health, are mostly the ones that feel the most competent when working with users with mental health problems. They are also the ones that feel the education on the Faculty of social work, prepared them well for working with users that experience mental health issues, while social workers who did not choose any of the contents related to mental health feel the education for social work did not prepare them sufficiently. Social workers who do not feel competent working with users with mental health problems, wish that centers for social work would organize more educations regarding this topic. They are also the ones that turn to the coordinators of community treatment for support the most. Based on my findings I present suggestions for the Faculty of social work and for the centers for social work that are mostly focused on the changes needed to be implemented so that social workers and future social workers would feel more competent working with users who experience mental health issues.
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