Biblioteconomía y trabajo social: una combinación estratégica para enfrentar pandemias / Library science and social work: a strategic combination to face pandemics

Las intervenciones profesionales de los trabajadores sociales y los bibliotecarios durante la pandemia por COVID-19 convergieron en el empleo de las tecnologías de la información para satisfacer necesidades de información tanto de personal médico como de los pacientes y sus familias. La colaboración de estos dos profesionales reforzaría significativamente el equipo multidisciplinario de la salud a partir de la mejora de los canales de flujo de información que se llevan a cabo en el ámbito hospitalario, el fomento a la atención humanizada en salud y las acciones de inclusión social en las bibliotecas para brindar mayores y mejores oportunidades, así como recursos a población vulnerable.

The professional interventions of social workers and librarians during the COVID-19 pandemic converged in the use of information technologies to meet the information needs of both medical personnel and patients and their families. The collaboration of these two professionals would significantly strengthen the multidisciplinary health team by improving the information flow channels that are carried out in the hospital, promoting humanized health care and carrying out social inclusion actions in libraries to provide greater and better opportunities and resources for the vulnerable population.

Suitability of Social Services for the Older Persons: Analysis of Degree of Fit between Needs and Services.

Increased life expectancy coupled with decreased birth rates has led to a notable aging of the population. In the social care sector, resources for the older persons should be allocated by means of objective instruments that ensure an appropriate fit between older people's needs and the characteristics of the services. This paper analyzes the appropriacy of actual assignments of resources in a sample of 632 older users of social services, evaluating the degree of fit between these assignments and those made by a Decision Making Model (DMM) which is strictly based on an objective assessment of user's needs and characteristics. The results indicate that biopsychosocial variables included as predictors in the DMM are appropriate for ensuring that the needs of the older persons are met and resources are optimized. However, the current assignments of users to services cannot be explained by relying solely on these variables, suggesting that the allocation of users to services may be conditioned by factors that are different from those covered by the DMM.

Do the Costs of AUD-Related Health and Social Care Services Vary Across Patient Profiles?

OBJECTIVE: Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are associated with high social and health care costs. We compare the direct social and health care costs of patients with AUDs, according to four service use profiles: (a) AUD treatment, (b) mental health (MH) treatment, (c) AUD + MH treatment, (d) no treatment. A separate analysis of the costliest 10% is included. Furthermore, the association between the service user profile and the risk of death is examined. METHOD: Direct unit service costs were retrieved from the electronic health record system and supplemented with patient grouping-based costs for primary and secondary care services, to examine the yearly mean cost per patient in the AUD cohort (N = 5,136; 71.1% male). We used data collected in the North Karelia region of Finland between 2014 and 2018. RESULTS: Total costs of care for the cohort during the 5-year follow-up were 126 million Euros, and the percentage of the costliest 10% (n = 521) was 51.7% (65 million Euros). Total costs were 12,778 Euros lower if the person received AUD treatment only, compared with those not in treatment. For those receiving MH treatment only, the total costs were 1,819 Euros higher, and costs were 1,523 Euros higher for those receiving AUD + MH treatment. Receiving any treatment was associated with a diminished risk of death (AUD: odds ratio [OR] = 0.56; MH: OR = 0.63; AUD + MH: OR = 0.41). CONCLUSIONS: Receiving only AUD treatment was associated with the lowest cost of care. Our results support the early identification of AUDs and provision of treatment in specialized addiction services to lower the costs of care and improve care outcomes.

Using deliberative methods to establish a sufficient state of capability well-being for use in decision-making in the contexts of public health and social care.

BACKGROUND: Health maximisation is unlikely to be a relevant objective for social care, where service users and the workforce have distinct priorities and needs. NICE permit use of a small number of capability-based measures for the evaluation of social care, including ICECAP-A, a measure with five attributes, each with four levels. AIM: To establish a sufficient state of capability well-being, as defined by ICECAP-A, through public deliberation, and evaluate and critically reflect on the deliberative process. METHODS: A series of one-day/6.5 h citizens' workshops were conducted, with recruitment from within purposively selected local authority areas. Workshops consisted of a mixture of background information, individual tasks, group discussion and voting. Representatives from each workshop were then invited to attend a 'consensus workshop'. Follow-up interviews facilitated evaluation of the deliberative process. RESULTS: 62 participants took part in deliberative work, across eight workshops. Participants actively engaged and provided positive feedback about their experience. Key considerations for participants included: the realistic ability of public services to enhance some areas of well-being; not removing incentives for self-help and avoiding state intrusion; building resilience and enabling people to 'give back to society'; ensuring that people are not left with a standard of well-being that is morally indefensible. The resulting sufficient state of capability well-being (defined by ICECAP-A) was 3,3,3,3,3 (where the best possible state is 4,4,4,4,4). CONCLUSION: Through a deliberative approach, representatives of the public were able to debate a complex social issue and reach a consensus decision on a sufficient state of capability well-being.

The Importance of Governmental and Nongovernmental Investments in Public Health and Social Services for Improving Community Health Outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: To explore whether health outcomes are influenced by both governmental social services spending and hospital provision of community health services. DESIGN: We combined hospital provision of community health services data from the American Hospital Association with local governmental spending data from the US Census Bureau. Longitudinal models regressed community health outcomes for 2012-2016 on local government spending on health, social services, and education from 5 years previously, controlling for sociodemographic and hospital marketplace characteristics, spatial autocorrelation, and state-level random effects. For counties with hospitals, models also included county-level data on hospitals' provision of community health services. SETTING: All analyses were performed at the county level for US counties between 2012 and 2016. PARTICIPANTS: Complete spending, hospital, and health outcomes data were available for a total of 2379 counties. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We examined relationships between governmental spending, hospital service provision, and 5 population health outcome measures: years of potential life lost prior to age 75 years per 100 000 population, percentage of population in fair or poor health, percentage of adults who are physically inactive, deaths due to injury per 100 000 population, and percentage of births that are of low birth weight. RESULTS: Governmental investments in health, social services, and education positively impacted key health outcomes but mainly in counties with 1 or more hospitals present. Hospitals' provision of community health services also had a significant positive impact on health outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Hospital provision of community health services and increases in local governmental health and social services spending were both associated with improved health. Collaboration between local governments and hospitals may help ensure that public and private community health resources synergistically contribute to the public's health. Local policy makers should consider service provision by the private sector to leverage the public investments in health and social services.

Social Work's Role in Collaborative Community-Academic Partnerships: How Our Past Informs Our Future.

In recent years, community-academic partnerships (CAPs) have gained traction in academia as a method for bridging the research-to-practice gap and reducing health disparities for marginalized populations. The field of social work may be well poised to enhance its ability to engage in partnerships and research around partnerships given its emphasis on conducting practice research and its historical roots in boundary spanning. In this article, the author begins by defining collaborative partnerships between academics and community stakeholders and then states specific advantages and challenges to collaborative partnerships in the field of social work. Throughout, the author explains how the historical foundations of the field (for example, acting as boundary spanners, advocating for marginalized individuals) place social workers in an ideal position to become leaders in the development, sustainment, and strengthening of CAPs. The author details the ways in which social work researchers can use the field's unique history to enhance the development and sustainment of CAPs. The article concludes by encouraging the field to use standardized terminology, methodology, and evaluation procedures when conducting CAPs and providing strategies for social work researchers who wish to increase their ability to develop and sustain CAPs within their own institutions.

Estimating the costs of air pollution to the National Health Service and social care: An assessment and forecast up to 2035.

BACKGROUND: Air pollution damages health by promoting the onset of some non-communicable diseases (NCDs), putting additional strain on the National Health Service (NHS) and social care. This study quantifies the total health and related NHS and social care cost burden due to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in England. METHOD AND FINDINGS: Air pollutant concentration surfaces from land use regression models and cost data from hospital admissions data and a literature review were fed into a microsimulation model, that was run from 2015 to 2035. Different scenarios were modelled: (1) baseline 'no change' scenario; (2) individuals' pollutant exposure is reduced to natural (non-anthropogenic) levels to compute the disease cases attributable to PM2.5 and NO2; (3) PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations reduced by 1 µg/m3; and (4) NO2 annual European Union limit values reached (40 µg/m3). For the 18 years after baseline, the total cumulative cost to the NHS and social care is estimated at £5.37 billion for PM2.5 and NO2 combined, rising to £18.57 billion when costs for diseases for which there is less robust evidence are included. These costs are due to the cumulative incidence of air-pollution-related NCDs, such as 348,878 coronary heart disease cases estimated to be attributable to PM2.5 and 573,363 diabetes cases estimated to be attributable to NO2 by 2035. Findings from modelling studies are limited by the conceptual model, assumptions, and the availability and quality of input data. CONCLUSIONS: Approximately 2.5 million cases of NCDs attributable to air pollution are predicted by 2035 if PM2.5 and NO2 stay at current levels, making air pollution an important public health priority. In future work, the modelling framework should be updated to include multi-pollutant exposure-response functions, as well as to disaggregate results by socioeconomic status.

Providing social services in a new immigrant settlement city: A qualitative inquiry.

Nationally, a new trend in migration has included the settlement of Latina/o immigrants in cities without an established community of Latinas/os. Social services become even more salient in this context in the absence of informal social networks of support. This study, guided by social ecological theory, advances our limited understanding of social services in new immigrant settlement destinations by elucidating contextual and structural factors endemic to the social service delivery process in these new immigrant destinations. Twenty-nine social service providers who work with Latina/o immigrants in Baltimore were interviewed and Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR; Hill, Thompson, & Nutt Williams, 1997) methods were used to analyze data through consensus and the use of multiple data "auditors." Findings extend our understanding of the context of social services in a new immigrant settlement city by identifying qualitative factors related to the new immigrant settlement, organization and work, community, and client level that impact access and quality of services. A theoretically driven conceptual framework adapted from the Structural Environmental conceptual framework (Organista, 2007) is also proposed to explain the transactional interconnectedness among structural-, environmental-, and client-level factors in the social service delivery process. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Evolving Politics of Race and Social Work Activism: A Call across Borders.

Social work has engaged with and led the revolutionary social movements of the past century. Yet today, as activism by and for racial others unfolds across the United States and Canada, our discipline remains largely silent. This article considers new ways for social workers to conceptualize social work activism, challenge the existing erasures within the profession, and construct innovative strategies to locate social work within the critical social movements of our time. Recognizing the continuity of histories of colonialism, slavery, and genocide, the author argues that social workers must engage with racialized communities' resistance through their legacy of exclusion and displacement. The author demonstrates the significance of an evolving politics of race and social justice for social work practice.

Medical social work practice in child protection in China: A multiple case study in Shanghai hospitals.

With the rapid development of the child welfare system in China over recent years, medical social work has been increasingly involved in providing child protection services in several hospitals in Shanghai. Focusing on five cases in this paper, the exploratory study aims to present a critical overview of current practices and effects of medical social work for child protection, based on a critical analysis of the multidimensional role of social work practitioners engaged in the provision of child protection services as well as potential challenges. Implications and suggestions for future improvements of China's child protection system are also discussed.

Moving toward integrated health: an opportunity for social work.

With the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and ongoing health care reform efforts, this is a critical time for the social work profession. The approaches and values embedded in health care reform are congruent with social work. One strategy is to improve care for people with co-morbid and chronic illnesses by integrating primary care and behavioral health services. This paper defines integrated health and how the PPACA promotes integrated health care through system redesign and payment reform. We consider how social workers can prepare for health care reform and discuss the implications of these changes for the future of the profession.