| Currently, individuals with mental illness report that they are hesitant to continue or connect to community resources (Sweet & Young, 2006). A review of the literature indicates that social workers are responsible for creating a mental health discharge plan for individuals, who are referred to community resources (Holliman, Dziegielewski, & Datta, 2001; Williams, 2003). There are two new expectations in discharge planning practices: to move clients to least restrictive and costly service that will meet their mental health needs (Levine & Kuerbis, 2002), and to incorporate recovery perspective into treatment and discharge planning processes (Anthony, 1993). These expectations add new dimensions to discharge planning. Social workers are under new constraints to expedite discharge planning, shorten the length of stays, save resources, reduce recidivism, and incorporate the recovery perspective to mental health treatment (Sharma, Elkins, Van Sickle, & Roberts, 1995; Simon, Perlman, Showers, Blumenfield, Holden, & Wu, 1995; Sulman, Savage, & Way 2001). However, prior to this study discharge planning was not explored to understand how these new expectations were experienced by social workers (Mirabito, 2001). To rectify this gap in knowledge, this qualitative research project explored the lived experience of eight licensed social workers' discharge planning experience. The analysis describes the unique lived experience of participants creating and implementing the discharge plan. The analysis found two essential structures named competing priorities and conflict and four key components within the essential structures, sharing and creating power, experiencing loss, feeling competent, and handling conflict (Giorgi, 1985). The analysis of the key components identified that participants described competing dual responsibilities in the discharge planning process. To reduce role conflict, participants expanded their definition of discharge planning success to include more than linkages to external supports. Participants redefine successful discharge planning to include the completion of the treatment goals. The findings of this study suggested both theoretical and practical research questions for future investigation. |
