Social work in health care
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Soc Work Health Care · Jan 1998
Understanding and responding to the health and mental health needs of Asian refugees.
Asian refugees in the United States have health and mental health needs that are different from those of mainstream Americans and even of recent immigrants. This paper provides a close look at the past experiences and present lives of these refugees, highlights their major problems, and identifies their health and mental health needs. It discusses the reasons why their needs are not being adequately met, and proposes the "what" and "how" of the contributions that social workers can make to addressing those needs.
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This study of 124 parents of children diagnosed with cancer investigates parents' perceptions of their role in the illness situation. The study found that mothers and fathers differ in their experience of and response to parenting a child with cancer. ⋯ Sex-role socialization theory is discussed as an explanatory model of the parenting experience. Practice recommendations are offered to medical social workers and other health care professionals concerned about the long term psychosocial adjustment of parents with chronically ill children.
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This paper considers the stresses and satisfactions experienced by health care social workers as they help clients with grief and loss at a time of great fiscal restraint. Their clients face life-threatening illnesses such as AIDS and many forms of cancer. ⋯ As social workers confront struggles with death and bereavement, they may receive limited support to deal with these stresses in their work. The authors suggest administrative strategies both to help workers reduce stress and increase satisfactions and to demonstrate the value of social work services to dying and bereaved clients along a continuum of health care.
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Soc Work Health Care · Jan 1995
ReviewTreatment of adolescent substance abusers: issues for practice and research.
Treatment of adolescent substance abuse poses difficult challenges to social work practitioners. Effective intervention requires awareness of assessment and treatment approaches and knowledge of individual, peer, and family factors that contribute to alcohol or drug use. Social work's emphasis on contextual factors in the etiology and maintenance of addictive disorders is an important contribution to substance abuse treatment. ⋯ This paper discusses the prevalence of alcohol and drug use among adolescents in the United States. Assessment issues are identified and promising approaches to treating adolescents with substance use problems are noted. Implications for social work practice and research are delineated.