Abstract

Considering the characteristics of the Korean family which maintain a close connection with their patients from the moment of their falling sick to hospitalization to discharge, the family is the most important environmental factor of the social supporting system, and is the important object of the client as well as activity system. The medical social work intends to meet the practical needs of aged chronic patients, providing them and their family with a professional human service. The end of this study is to find out the hardships of both the aged chronic patients and their family as well as their needs for the social welfare service, and to search out the way of comprehensive social work service. The summary of the analysis of the survey is as follows: 1. The needs of aged chronic patients are divided into those of the solution of the problems of falling ill, social welfare program and discharge. Those needs arc affected by the various factors of the types of hospitals, the patients' age, the kinds of insurance, and the supporting systems, etc. Accordingly, the assessment of the needs of the patients are asked to be done comprehensively in accordance with the kinds of diseases and social environments. 2. The importance of the family to the aged chronic patients is evident. The family plays a decisive role in the patients' hospitalization and discharge, the family being an important supporting system and making it necessary to take an approach to client system. The family has difficulty in getting connection of community resources, in adapting to social life after the patient's discharge, and in paying the treatment. The family suffers the secondary hardships more than the burden of the treatment expenses. 3. For this reason various interventions are needed to reduce the stress caused by supporting and nursing patients. Thus the social welfare service for the aged chronic patients and their family needs the following prepositions: 1. It is the characteristics of the aged chronic patients that they need continuous care and that the strengths of the patients and their family cannot be too much emphasized, and that comprehensive assessment based on the connection 'with the community and the mutual interchange 'with the environment, is much emphasized. 2. The family of the aged chronic patient is a resources system as well as a client one. 3. Another characteristic of the aged chronic patients is that with the resources connection in mind, it needs an active intervention of social workers in the community. With these prepositions considered, the development of practical social work service for the aged chronic patients is thought urgently needed.

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