Social workers in integrated health care: Improving care throughout the life course

TLDR

Social work is a vital workforce for improving health and well‑being of individuals, families, and communities, and integrated care offers a promising avenue to enhance population health across the life course. This special issue aims to showcase social work’s power in integrated settings to address behavioral, psychosocial, and physical health needs, while advancing education, practice, and research for improved care across the life course. The issue’s papers examine social workers’ expanding roles in integrated health settings and the organizational and system factors influencing their intervention delivery. The issue demonstrates that social workers add value to health‑care teams, improving outcomes for patients, families, and communities, and encourages continued expansion of their boundary‑spanning roles in hospitals and community settings.

Abstract

Great strides have been made in highlighting the strengths of the social work profession as a workforce vital to improving the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities. Nevertheless, substantially more work is needed to advance education, practice, and research involving social workers' potential and their contributions to improved care throughout the life course. This special issue offers exemplars of the power of social work in integrated settings with the capacity to address the scope of behavioral health, psychosocial, and physical health care needs. In today's rapidly evolving heath care context, integrated care represents a promising direction for the future of health services, and may be leveraged to improve population health across the life course. Papers selected for this special issue focused on two themes: (a) defining the expanding roles and functions social workers fulfill in integrated health settings, and (b) identifying organizational and system factors that affect social workers' delivery of interventions in integrated health models. This special issue further articulates the added-value of social workers on health care teams and the resulting improved outcomes for patients, families, and communities. Through increased evidence, such as the knowledge gained from this special issue, it is our hope that the profession continues to advance the boundary-spanning roles and capabilities of social workers in integrated health settings-both in the hospital and in community-based settings.