Social Work in Health Care
Its Past and Future
This book is written by an American author with an American context. However it is well researched and discusses in depth the main issues in relation to the social worker's role.
Instructor wanted
The text book is comprehensive and well written. It is easy to read. Greater use of tables/figures would make it more user friendly. The content is focussed in the US and as a result not always relevant to the UK. However the theory was transferrable. I think the book is more relevant to the students in the later stages of their training and those that are post graduate. It would be an excellent book for a student studying in the US. The critical thinking questions were very useful to evaluate what you have read and how you practise.
The new edition has the following new material on:
1. A brief history of the efforts to reform the American health care system. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, its provisions and their likely effects on people, employers, insurance companies, and health care providers. Political controversy that this law has generated and its likely consequences.
2. The changing characteristics of hospitals. Changing nature of hospital-physician relationships. New ambulatory care settings such as Ambulatory surgery centers, Urgent care centers and walk-in clinics located in neighborhood pharmacies and food stores. New health care situations such as a terrorism-related emergency.
3. State and local Public health departments and organizations. Goals and strategies for Healthy People 2020. Nursing homes and other Long-term care organizations. Hospice care orgnizations.
4. Understanding and interacting with the elderly, disabled, homeless, sufferers from AIDS, children, new immigrant, victims of violence and abuse, and alcoholic and psychiatric patients as well as families of dying/dead patients.
5. Explanatory and intervention theories, practice principles and approaches such as: theories of child abuse, theories of behavior change, principles of family-centered care, and essentials of social work crisis intervention, approaches to prevention of child abuse and neglect, health promotion for AIDS prevention, multicultural health promotion, Internet-based community organizing, principles of long-term care, geriatric case management, family-centered care, and conflict resolusion.