Social work in health care in the next ten years

The social worker in health settings in the future will have more medical knowledge that affects his practice, be a more active psychosocial counselor, and be prepared to work in group practice that includes a number of disciplines. The social work department of the future will be organized in a more decentralized fashion, and will develop stronger links to other clinical and administrative departments within the medical center, to departments of social work of other medical centers, and particularly with community groups outside of the hospital. The department will need to assign manpower expertise in such areas as knowledge of changing social and welfare systems, legislation affecting programs, as well as in research, computerization, data gathering, and retrieval.