Paper Details

Name: Nagendrakumar .P
Country: India

Year: 2025
Volume: Volume-12, Issue-2 (July-December)
Page Number: 445-451
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19367269

ABSTRACT
Health care social work is a branch of social work often referred to as hospital social work. Medical social workers usually operate in a hospital, outpatient clinic, community health organization, skilled nursing home, long-term care center, or hospice. They assist patients and their families requiring psychosocial support. Medical social workers evaluate the psychosocial well-being of patients and families and provide interventions when needed. Interventions might involve linking patients and families to essential community resources and support such as preventive care; offering psychotherapy, supportive counseling, or grief counseling; or assisting a patient in broadening and reinforcing their social support network. The function of a medical social worker is to "reestablish equilibrium in a person's personal, familial, and social spheres, with the aim of assisting the individual in preserving or regaining health and enhancing their capacity to adjust and reintegrate into the community." Experts in this area usually collaborate with other fields like medicine, nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and recreational therapy.

Keywords: public healthcare, social work; prevention, Affordable Care act, Health
inequalities.