Zu den beziehungen zwischen sozialarbeit und gesundheitswissenschaften

The goal of this article is to help clarify the relationship between Social Work and Public Health. At present, Social Work and Public Health still have little awareness of each other, although both fields actively engage in the promotion of public health. Therefore they can both be understood as practice-oriented and science-oriented. The reasons for the prevailing ignorance of this reciprocal relationship cannot be explained in terms of (supposed) incompatibility. Rather, they are the result of a split between science and practice, i.e. between theory and practice. It appears that Public Health has a more scientific approach whereas Social Work draws its theories from the practical work. If it were possible to dovetail the aspects of health and disease into both theory and practice, i.e. science and practice, the two fields would be able to develop a greater awareness of each other, cooperate with and profit from each other’s competence in practice-research and research-practice, as well as contribute more fully to public health.