The Social Work-Medicine Relationship by Helen Rehr Rosenberg Gary

Author:Helen Rehr, Rosenberg Gary [Helen Rehr, Rosenberg Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Social Work
ISBN: 9781135801830
Google: UqOgB4J1s4EC
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-11-12T03:40:47+00:00

An Aspiring Researcher Begins at Mount Sinai

Barbara Berkman, DSW

Helen Rehr/Ruth Fizdale Professor

Columbia University School of Social Work

It is difficult to believe Barbara Berkman that it has been over twenty years since I left my position as a researcher at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Had my husband not taken a position in Boston, I probably still would be at Mount Sinai today. This book, written by my former Sinai colleagues Helen Rehr (whose Chair, endowed in her name, I proudly hold at Columbia University School of Social Work) and Gary Rosenberg, brings back my memories of the “heyday” at Mount Sinai, when interdisciplinary collaboration among the health professions was evident on every level—submitting grants, writing papers, and teamwork on the hospital floors. What an incredible and indelible experience this was for me. This book presents important memories for those of us who were there and great lessons for those who were not fortunate enough to “grow up” with Doris Siegel, Jeanette Regensburg, and Helen Rehr.

In 1962 when I joined the faculty of Mount Sinai School of Medicine as a young Columbia doctoral candidate, the Women’s Auxiliary Board, the focus of this book’s Chapter 4, provided “seed money” for this aspiring young researcher so that I could write my first of a series of grants which explored older patients and social work services. These intelligent avant-garde women believed that research was essential as the foundation for program development and that the information we would uncover could lead to enhanced services for patients. My early studies on screening and identification of older patients in need of social work services became the foundation of my research for over thirty years. I know that the board’s early support for this pioneering work was not limited in impact to Mount Sinai. Eventually, the funding from this research were disseminated through publications and presentations throughout the country. This eventually led to improved services to patients in need of psychosocial help, as social work screening mechanisms became the norm for practice in most major hospitals. Today, as social work moves into community-based ambulatory care services, emphasizing primary care and ongoing health care management of chronic illnesses, we are bringing screening and case-finding into primary care. At the same time, we continue preadmission and admission screening for hospitalized patients’ posthospital care needs so that discharge transitions can be facilitated more effectively. Thus the legacy of social work at Mount Sinai in this area continues.

Dramatic changes have occurred in patient care delivery, stimulated by advances in technology and new approaches to the financing of health care. Social workers in health care are still very visible, working as providers in new models of care. However, many of these new models operate as separate and fragmented entities, isolated from social support services. This raises our concern for the accessibility, efficiency, and comprehensiveness of health care service delivery. Thus, while we have had scientific breakthroughs, these advances do not necessarily carry equivalent provisions for the vulnerable and the economically disadvantaged. The pioneering outcomes

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