Beneficence re-examined: protective intervention in mental health

Social workers have long reacted negatively to the idea of limiting client freedoms, seeing such activity as directly contrary to such central social work values as autonomy and self-determination. Nevertheless, practitioners often find themselves required to actively intervene in a protective manner when clients are unable to fend for themselves. Such interventions are increasingly a part of everyday practice as social workers respond to new mandates to provide services to disabled and vulnerable individuals. Because of these changing circumstances, the concept of beneficence and the process of protective treatment are currently being re-examined, especially in mental health. This article develops a conceptual model of protective intervention that can be used by clinical decision makers in a variety of situations. Case examples drawn from work with chronically mentally ill patients are used to illustrate the discussion.