Behavioral Social Work in Health Care Settings

An essential resource for social work professionals!

As the focus of the health care industry shifts from predominantly hospital-based care to out-patient managed care, social workers must adapt to a new environment. Owing to changes driven by major advances in medical care knowledge, technology, and skill, new issues in ethics, practice, and policy have arisen. Behavioral Social Work in Health Care Settings addresses the impact that changing patterns in health care delivery have had (and will continue to have) on social work professionals, presenting a thoughtful collection of articles that combine research with practical experience.

Behavioral Social Work in Health Care Settings looks at a range of critical issues facing health care social work professionals, including:

• building a social support system for the patient

• adopting a biopyschosocial approach to medical education

• evaluating social work interventions in health care

• addressing economic, quality-of-life, and ethical concerns of organ recipients

• maintaining a client-based focus on health care

• and also includes a study of the psychosocial needs of patients in a large urban medical center

  Required reading for social work administrators, practitioners, teachers, and students, Behavioral Social Work in Health Care Settings represents presentations from the Seventh Doris Siegel Memorial Colloquium, which called for the critical examination of changes in health care delivery brought about by financial pressures from government levels and private insurers.