Advancing Social Work Practice in Health Care

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Abstract

Social work has been reasonably optimistic regarding our contribution to the well-being of the clients we serve, somewhat less optimistic regarding our contribution to the achievement of desired social utilities, and cyclically either optimistic or pessimistic regarding our contribution to the social policies affecting population groups, neighborhood groups, regions, and the nation. Historically, social work’s contribution to health care has been characterized by an emphasis on social health and on those aspects of social health care that affect patients, families, and populations at risk. From the time that Ida M. Cannon was invited by Richard Cabot to begin an organized social work effort at the Massachusetts General Hospital, social work’s contribution to social health care has been recognized with uneven enthusiasm and appreciated by only a fair sampling of physicians, administrators, and client groups. Perhaps it is the characteristically dual focus of social work, which some authors have called “cause and function” and others have labeled “personal services and social policies, " that has made social work unique. Our major strength is in placing both individual and population needs and problems into a social context and in looking for remedies to these ills not only in the individual and his environment, but in the social policies that affect them.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSocial Work in Health Care
Subtitle of host publicationA Handbook for Practice
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages855-868
Number of pages14
ISBN (Electronic)9781317823971
ISBN (Print)9780866569071
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2014

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