Social work in health care: directions in practice

As technological advances within biomedicine uncover more complex and confusing situations, social workers are forced to deal with the patient and family with greater uncertainty. To competently address today's biomedical environment with an anticipation of tomorrow's advances is an incredible challenge. The focus of the theoretical framework necessary as the foundation for health care practice has shifted from an emphasis on psychopathology to a focus on what people do well, on their adaptive capacities with the goal of preventing maladaptive behavior. Therefore, the focus of practice must be on factors that affect normal or typical growth and development in the course of living and must include an understanding of the interaction between the biological, psychological, cognitive, social, cultural, and environmental dimensions of social functioning.