Medical Social Work (Hospital Social Work)
Until the early 1900s Social work practice in the United States was based in the community. Social workers addressed public health problems. Such as tuberculosis and infant mortality, Syphilis, Polio and Unmarried Pregnancy beginning in the 1889, primarily through affiliation with agencies (Cannon, 1952 Kerson, 1981, Nacman, 1977) Jane Addoms organized a medical dispensary at Hull-House Settlement in 1893 (Brocht 1978), but except to isolated instance. Social workers were not permitted in hospitals until several years later. During the education of city hospital from almshouse to hospital in 1891, Fred Golden Bogen of the Cleveland city welfare department was assigned to set up records at hospital so that patients could be identified by name and relatives could be notified incase at death (Wagner, 1977). The in 1900 William Henry, doctors of the city outdoor relief department assisted the hospital in clearing wards, clogged by chronic patient and by homeless civil war veteray thereby demonstrating the value of social services to the hospital by freeing beds occupied by unwelcome boarders then at that moment hospital social work start.
“Medical Social Work is the application of social work knowledge, skill, attitudes and values to the field of health and medicine” (Rex A. Skidmore and M.G. Thackeray) “Introduction to Social Work” (P-72).
Objectives of medical Social Work:
- Helping people enlarge problem solving and coping abilities.
- Facilitating interaction between individuals and others in their environment.
- Helping people obtain resources.
- Making organizations responsive to people influencing interactions between organizations and institutions.
- Influencing social environment policy (Minahan 1981).
Purposes of Medical Social Work:
- Helping people facing illness, trauma-related crises, or disability to understand and manage the psychosocial impact on their lives and on significant relationships and to make decisions and plan for the future.
- Facilitating adaptive coping patterns and adjustment to chronic illness or disability and assisting with reintegration or adaptation to new environments.
- Participating in multidisciplinary teams and providing insight and understanding of the psychosocial dimensions of the medical circumstances affecting particular patients and families.
- Identifying and arranging community supports and practical resources to facilitate discharge from hospital or transfer to alternative care facilities.
- Assessing the needs of selected patient populations, planning and implementing appropriate programs, networking with community organizations, and developing services to meet these needs, including support and psycho educational groups, educational forums, socialization, and reintegration activities.
- Identifying potential neglect, abuse, and exploitation in vulnerable populations and involving authorized agencies.
- Supporting institutional goals and purposes and encouraging institutional responsiveness to patient needs.
- Assisting with anticipatory grief and mourning, counseling people facing death, and providing other bereavement-related services to members of the family, including making practical arrangements.
