Health social work and social risks in psychiatric care
Keywords:
social work in health care, risk factors, register-based data, psychiatryAbstract
Patients in psychiatric care live in a vulnerable position in society. They confront social risks daily and live with uncertainty and threat of social risks in their everyday life. This article studies social risks among psychiatric care patients and the role of health care social workers in responding to them. The data contains the records of 191 psychiatric patients from the period of 2009-2019. The data were analyzed by mixed methods by combining category analysis with logistical regression analysis.
The results show that patients in psychiatric care face widely various complex risks. Social risks were divided into nine categories, which were abilities to work, social relations, addictions, subsistence, violence and crime, abilities to function, intergenerational transmission, housing, and death of loved one and renouncement. The prevalence of social risks varied notably while comparing the records of health social work with the whole dataset. The sub-data of health care social works highlights the risks of subsistence and housing and decreases the risks of social relations, addictions, and violence and crime compared with the whole dataset. Logistical regression analysis proves that the deviance is not related to the guidance of the patients.
According to the results, it seems that risk management is not structured by any methods in psychiatric care. There were noticeable situations where social risks were managed inadequately in the data. Neither does social work in health care seem to manage social risks structurally.
It is possible to obtain considerable further knowledge about patients’ conditions by examining social risks in psychiatry. Further information is needed to study the blind spots in our services concerning certain social risks. It should be considered that each social risk can predict increasing psychiatric vulnerability and general social malaise. Identification and management of social risks can advance the rehabilitation and life management of psychiatric patients.
