[Functions of the social worker in a multi-professional team in inpatient psychosomatic rehabilitation]

The task of rehabilitation as defined by law and the concept of psychosomatic-psychotherapeutic treatment require cooperation of different professions in a clinical team. This approach implies a concept of interdisciplinary cooperation in which the contributions towards treatment to be made by the individual members of the multiprofessional team are defined by means of functions and tasks. Participation of the social worker is an integral element of psychosomatic teamwork. The social worker makes an important contribution towards the interdisciplinary arrangement of psychosomatic rehabilitation treatment by taking over functions for maintaining the ward setting, for the psychotherapy process and the rehabilitation task as well as for the working of the team. On the basis of his specific competence he provides independent knowledge, particular ways of interaction, and singular methods of intervention of social work for the psychosomatic treatment carried out by the multiprofessional team.