Weekly Reflection 9
The final chapter summarizes the whole book and gives us the
overall idea of the social work field. It
points out the emerging trends in health care delivery. One of the important changes made in the
health care in the United States is shifting from the hospital to the community
as the center of health care delivery (Cowles, 2003). This country understands that people with
various health care situations need professionals who understand their not only
physiological status, but also psychological, and social status. Therefore,
social workers are in demand in all kinds of health care field and because of
them, the country is able to reduce the use of both mental hospitals and
general hospitals and to increase the use of ambulatory care setting. Three groups of social work skills are
identified to be needed in the care affecting social work in the field: Basic
skills, population-specific skills, and Autonomy-building skills. Health care social workers should be prepared
to work with little or no supervision, be able to take the leadership roles on
a team and be able to advise the patient and family about their options. The research for social work field should be
done more in order to develop a body of practice. The need for a technology of caring is also
important in health care. Because caring
is prevention, professionals should more focus on all three levels of health
service: Promotion of health and prevention of disease onset, prevention of
compounding already existing health problems, and prevention of avoidable
suffering and impairment of function.
Reference
Cowles, L. A. F. (Ed.). (2003). Social work in the health
field: A care perspective. (2nd ed.) Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press.
I agree with everything you said in your post. It is great, to me, that the use of social work has limited on mental homes and so forth. I feel like by allowing social work into the health care field many great options have opened.
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