Social Work in Health Systems

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Role of social workers in public health
Role of Social workers in Primary Health care
Social workers providing Health-Based Services
Role of Social workers in Emergency rooms
Role of the social worker in Homecare
Social workers in Hospice programs
Works cited

Introduction

Social workers have been integrated into health systems as a way to reduce cost and increase efficiency. Social workers are seen to work alongside other permanent workers in the provision of health care services. Social workers act as a direct link with the communities they serve. They help communities in tackling health issues and advising them on plans concerning health problems.

The social workers are playing a major role in dealing with a psychological condition in public health. Their main aim is to curb mental illness by tackling social problems facing the communities they serve.

They have been largely involved in implementing prevention measures in health issues. They are charged with the role of educating youths on dangers that loom on early pregnancy, abuse of drugs and protection from HIV AIDS (Dubois et.al, 295). Social workers achieve preventive measures by organizing community educational seminars. Through education seminars, people are informed of medical problems that exist and how they can improve their lifestyle.

Primary health care centers have integrated social workers as members of health care providers within their premises. Social workers work with patients who are facing social problems as groups, families or on an individual basis. Some of the problems they tackle include depression, patients facing family problems or cases of obesity from patients. Their participation has shown tremendous improvement in the rate of patients’ recovery. To add on it patients who recover under the care of social workers have a low rate of readmission to the health centers with similar problems (Dubois et.al, 296).

Upon admission of a patient in a hospital, while other medical professionals deal with physical health problem the social worker will identify psychological problems facing the patient. Once the social workers learn of the psychological problem from patients they will give advice while they are within or outside the health centers to increase the rate of recovery. Patients within health centers need an advocate for their right within health centers. Social workers will try to act as advocates on behalf of patients to make sure health workers provide care according to the patients’ wishes (Dziegielewski, 200).

The advocacy role will eliminate situations where doctors overstep their mandate while dealing with the patients. Illness of patients that lead to family problems requires social workers to step in to provide counseling to the patient and family. The counseling will speed up acceptance of the patients within their families no matter what the problem is. Patients who need to be integrated into social groups to speed up their recovery are helped by social workers within the health centers. Some patients’ categories who require groups for recovery purposes are those who may be suffering from drug addiction.

The social worker is aware of the groups within the patients’ locality and is able to secure admission on behalf of the patient with one of the groups. Patients who suffer from terminal illness require admission to hospice or nursing homes. Such admission might be a problem for them because of the lack of correct information or money. Social workers upon discovery of such problems they will secure the admission of the patients to the hospice or nursing home.

Emergency rooms within hospitals have integrated social workers to help deal with the social problems of patients getting admitted in them. Patients visiting emergency rooms might face problems of getting clothing, food, or doctor’s attention (Dubois et al., 300).

The social worker in the emergency room will communicate the patient’s needs to the health provider while offering counseling to the patient to improve on chances of recovery. Their role in an emergency room plays a role in alleviating suffering to patients facing terminal illness or homeless patients who do not have families to take care of them. Such patients upon receiving psychological advice from the social workers have higher chances of recovering.

Patients having terminal illness sometimes receive medical care from their homes. Social workers are allocated certain patients whom they visit to see if they are taking their medications as prescribed. The social worker is supposed to see that the patient is able to secure medical resources either from the government or other organizations to ease pains or suffering in the correct form and correct format. Involvement of social workers in-home health care has greatly reduced the cost of offering health care (Dubois et al., 301).

Hospices have been offering medical care to patients facing terminal and chronic illness. Most patients visiting hospices suffer from a psychological problem because of their form of illness. The social workers try to organize care on behalf of the patient because social workers are well informed of the patients’ environment. Some problems facing patients within hospice might create a family crisis because of lack of agreement among family members.

The social workers will counsel the family members to accept the patient’s illness and try to help in providing health care to the patient. Such counseling will allow family members to cope with the crisis without getting into depressions or fights. The social worker is charged with the responsibility of championing for better health care services to patients under the hospice program. The better services will ensure they get a dignified life while alleviating pain in their last days in the world.

Works cited

Dubois,B. & Miley K. Social Work: An Empowering Profession. New Jersey: Pearson, 2010. Print.

Dziegielewski, S. The Changing Face of Health Care Social Work Professional Practice in Managed Behavioral Health Care. New York: Springer, 2003. Print.

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Introduction

Role of social workers in public health

Role of Social workers in Primary Health care

Social workers providing Health-Based Services

Role of Social workers in Emergency rooms

Role of the social worker in Homecare

Social workers in Hospice programs

Works cited

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