The role of the psychiatrist in the training of social workers is well established and is mutually understood and accepted. For many years psychiatrists have been serving as teachers in schools of social work and as case consultants and seminar leaders in social agencies.5,10 The use of the psychiatric social worker in the training of psychiatrists is a more recent development. Review of the literature indicates that social workers in adult psychiatric residency training programs are used for the most part sporadically in the resident's experience, rather than as an integral part of his training. Our thesis is that the dimension of viewing the patient within his social milieu is added to training for psychiatry, when the contribution of social work is woven into the whole fabric of the resident's experience in treating adult patients, beginning in his first year of training.
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