Working with problems of assault to self-image and life-style

This paper defines two groups of patients in general hospitals who require special attention to the social and emotional components of their illnesses: those patients who experience assaults to self-image and those patients who must make basic changes in their life-style. These two groups comprise a large segment of the adult patient population found in medical and surgical services of the general hospital. The emotional reactions of patients and family members to the process of illness and its treatment by surgery and prescribed regimen are examined. Although therapeutic intervention is the shared responsibility of all health care practitioners, the social worker is particularly equipped to deal with these attitudes and reactions. Methods of social work intervention useful to both groups of patients during hospitalization are discussed. The author urges greater utilization of therapeutic milieu concepts in medical and surgical services and identifies the role of the social worker in fostering this.