Hospital Social Work in Australia: Emerging Trends or More of the Same?

Social work in health care has been established for more than 100 years and is one of the largest areas of practice for social workers. Over time, demographic changes and growth in the aging population, increased longevity rates, an explosion in rates of chronic illness together with rapidly increasing cost of health care have created serious challenges for acute hospitals and health social workers. This article reviews the Australian health care system and policies with particular emphasis on the public hospital system. It then examines current hospital social work roles, including the continued role in discharge planning and expanding responsibility for emerging client problems, such as patient complexity, legal, and carer issues. The article concludes with a discussion of evolving issues and challenges facing health social work to ensure that social work remain relevant within this practice context.     

Improving the depth of data quality or increasing confusion? Reflections on a data analysis involving members of a self‐help group for relatives of people living with dementia

BackgroundPublic involvement in research to improve data quality and to empower different stakeholders is good scientific practice, but rarely implemented across all research phases.ObjectiveThis article reports on an attempt to involve members of a self‐help group for relatives of people living with dementia as co‐researchers in the data analysis in a short‐term format.MethodsOne researcher identified statements about assistive technologies from 17 interviews with people living with dementia and informal caregivers. Two researchers and six co‐researchers independently assigned pre‐defined values to these statements. Subsequently, we compared the values of the researchers and co‐researchers.ResultsThe members of the self‐help group identified four original values not considered by the researchers: consent, inclusion, participation and respect.DiscussionThe involvement of co‐researchers led to an improvement in the depth of data quality through the joint identification of values concerning assistive technology. Language barriers between researchers, co‐researchers and interview participants impeded the data analysis.ConclusionThe challenges and benefits of a participatory data analysis shown here can provide a basis for recommendations for target group‐specific research involvement. Our recommendations relate to the recruitment of co‐researchers, requirements for conducting a participatory data analysis and the participation degree of people involved.Patient or Public ContributionThe group of co‐researchers participating in the data analysis consisted of relatives of people living with dementia.     

Prospects for the elimination of leprosy as a public health problem in the State of Paraná, Brazil

Leprosy, an endemic contagious/infectious disease, is still a public health problem in most States of Brazil, despite an important decrease in the prevalence rate in recent years. The current study aims to analyze the prospects for the elimination of leprosy in the State of Paraná, based on detection and prevalence rates for the years 2000 to 2005, in addition to data on gender, age, clinical form, operational classification, and number of skin lesions. Data were obtained from the Reportable Diseases Information System (SINAN) and the Tabnet software. Leprosy detection and prevalence rates in Paraná remained unaltered during the study period. The leprosy detection rates were high or very high in the majority of the health districts in the State. In terms of prevalence, eight health districts had reached the goal of eliminating the disease. In conclusion, the State of Paraná is close to reaching the goal of eliminating leprosy. Based on the study results, actions are recommended to eliminate the disease as a public health problem.     

Is the glass half empty or full? Reflections on strain and gain in cargivers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease

While caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia experience a range of caregiving burdens or strains, it has been found that they also experience positive outcomes or gains. This study examined both the caregiver strains and gains in a diverse urban sample of 85 caregivers (spouses and adult children). Eighty-one percent of the caregivers reported both strains and gains, while 19% of the caregivers reported only experiencing strains. The caregiver strains originated from worries and uncertainties, balancing multiple demands, and feeling overwhelmed with care, while spiritual growth, personal growth, and feelings of mastery produced feelings of gain. Implications for clinical social work practice will be presented.     

Reflections on the Clinician’s Role with Individuals Who Self-identify as Transgender

Archives of Sexual Behavior - The fact that modern patterns of the treatment of trans individuals are not based on controlled or long-term comprehensive follow-up studies has allowed many ethical...