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A consultant psychiatrist has recently join­ed our staff. His coming has been discussed with great interest for a long time and already, although he has been with us for only a week or two, I can see that his arrival has lit up many of the frictions within the department. For instance, the split between the trained and the untrained has become more noticeable. Only today I was caught up in an argument instigated by Miss W., who seizes every oppor­tunity to hammer home her opposition to the emphasis placed on professional qualification. She argues her case on the platform of the un­trained but highly-experienced social worker with thirty years' experience behind her. She is bitterly resentful of new entrants to the service who, because they hold a qualification such as a social science diploma or degree, can enter the service on an equal status with her, even though they have no practical experience of the work that is undertaken.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-015-2745-3_14

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