Social work interventions as patient adjust to illness

Patient care is strengthened by the RN case manager and social work relationship. Social workers should consider patient psychosocial needs alongside the RN case manager’s assessment of the patient’s disease trajectory and recovery requirements. In order to facilitate this interaction, social workers should have a background in anatomy and physiology. This section assumes such a background and will thus focus on the types of interventions relevant to medical conditions and adjustment to illness.

A medical diagnosis or injury may require a patient to make adjustments to his or her daily lifestyle. Social workers should thus assess a patient’s level of functioning prior to the illness and discuss the implications of his or her illness on current and future level of functioning. Gaps in patient realities should be addressed. To be successful in this role, social workers should have appropriate knowledge of the related medical condition and injury.

Oftentimes, a new diagnosis may feel isolating to a patient, especially if this illness or injury is unique to his or her primary support system. Fortunately, many groups are available to support persons with new diagnoses. Social work should attempt to connect patients with an active support group that may meet their needs. For example, the American Cancer Society (www.acs.org) has an elaborate network of support services available to patients and families coping with cancer diagnoses.

A new diagnosis may also be traumatizing to a patient. As such, an assessment of mental health and substance abuse history, coping skills, and suicidal ideation is also necessary to determine the patient’s capacity to adjust to a new illness. This assessment becomes increasingly important should sufficient psychosocial deficiencies (e.g., no familial or social support system) be obtained during the assessment process described earlier in this chapter.

Last, social workers should also take an active role in educating patients about the transmission of bacterial and viral infections. For example, patients may benefit from education surrounding proper hygiene as it relates to bacterial infections or transmission mechanisms as they relate to viral infections. This will not only protect the patient, but also others who may come in contact with him or her.

For more information, see Social Work: Strength-Based Practice in Hospital Case Management.