No abstract available.
Social Workers

During the long treatment period (from the treatment of early stage to rehabilitation), burn patients have experienced many problems that they cannot handle it. It is very important as to overcome psychosocial problems of burn patient as to get treatment. The social work intervention for burn patients is so necessary for psychosocial problems solving; this intervention require to support by family. Depending on burn treatment procedure, and patient's social status, each burn patients have different symptom of psychosocial problems. Medical social workers work through different method of intervention that included casework, group work, connecting community resource and etc.
Burns ; Humans ; Social Workers

As the average life span is extended, the elderly population has increased, as has the incidence of certain diseases such as dementia. In addition, an increased number of studies linking diabetes with accelerated cognitive impairment and dementia, have been reported. At this time, providing social service information for dementia patients and using it for diabetes education and counseling is needed. Dementia puts a heavy psychosocial and financial burden on patients and their families, and has a negative influence on life satisfaction of the entire family. Various social services for dementia patients the government offered would help to lessen such a burden.
Aged ; Counseling ; Dementia ; Humans ; Incidence ; Social Welfare ; Social Workers

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of work conditions on job stress of social workers in Seoul. METHOD: For this survey, a self-reported questionnaire was administrated to 1,000 social workers working in all of organization for social welfare practice in Seoul. The number of responded questionnaires was 431. Multiple linear regression analysis was used for job stress as the dependent variables and control variables. RESULTS: The result of multiple linear regression analysis indicated that regular rest breaks had significantly effect on job stress level but long working hours did not. When regular rest breaks was guaranteed job stress of social workers significantly lowered 8.4 point. In addition standardized regression coefficients and partial R2 of regular rest breaks was the highest score among the variables. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that it is the most important to guarantee regular rest breaks in the work schedule in order to alleviate job stress of social workers.
Appointments and Schedules ; Linear Models ; Social Welfare ; Social Workers ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The objective of this paper is to suggest future goals and strategies for social work in hospice and palliative care in Korea by understanding its historical background. Both literature review and participant observation were performed to examine historical data relating to social work in hospice and palliative care in Korea. Also reviewed were the current trends with a focus on the roles of social workers in the said arena, qualifications, education, research and medical insurance policy. First of all, the roles of social workers do not appear to be clearly defined in the field of hospice and palliative care, which seems to lead to the lack of recognition as professional workers. The qualification standard for social workers in hospice and palliative care remains inadequate. Second, there seems to be insufficient professional social worker training resources, in terms of both the number of educators and training programs. Third, social workers in Korea produce significantly less publications than those in other professions. There is also a dearth of qualified evidence-based research that is needed to prove benefits of intervention and ultimately for policy implications. Last, the current medical insurance policy needs to be revised to secure fees for social work services and dedicated full-time social workers in hospice and palliative care. Korea needs to approach social work in hospice and palliative care with specific goals to develop future strategies. Related infrastructure and an executive structure should be established via networking and partnership with academic societies, associations and schools.
Fees and Charges ; Hospices ; Humans ; Insurance ; Korea ; Palliative Care ; Social Workers

PURPOSE: Proper education of hospice professionals is essential for ensuring quality of end-of-life care. In 2005, 'End-of-life Care Task Force Team' by Ministry of Health and Welfare established '60 hours of hospice education' as basic requirement for hospice professionals. This study is aimed to determine how many of the hospice professionals meet with the criteria and whether there are significant regional variations. METHODS: We analyzed the data from 46 hospice organizations, which submitted the application to the 2008 designation program of Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Family Affairs. Data included details of the educational records of each hospice professionals. RESULTS: Total 673 hospice professionals were included in the analysis. Overall, only 41.5% (279/673) met the requirement. Nurses (46.8%; 177/378) were more likely to meet the requirement than doctors (35.8%; 38/106), social workers (32.0%; 24/75) and clergies (35.1%; 40/114). Hospice professionals of the organizations in metropolitan area received more education than those in small cities or rural area (52.4% vs. 25.0% for doctors, 50.6% vs. 43.9% for nurses, 42.9% vs. 25.5% for social workers). By geographic areas, hospice professionals in southeast regions received less education than other part of Korea (28.1% vs. 43.0~48.8%, respectively). CONCLUSION: Less than half of the Korean hospice professionals has received proper amount of hospice education, and significant regional variations existed. National programs to promote the education of hospice professionals and eliminate its disparities are greatly warranted. Implementation of the 60-hour currirulum for hospice professionals, based on the train-the-trainer model, would be regarded as one potential solution.
Advisory Committees ; Clergy ; Hospices ; Humans ; Korea ; Palliative Care ; Social Workers

PURPOSE: This study was designed to assess the relationship between spirituality and state hope of medical social workers in Korea and their correlation was studied to provide data in developing effective spiritual and hope intervention for medial social workers. METHODS: The study surveyed 102 medical social workers in Korea from September 1, 2011 to September 30, 2011. The study employed the Korean version of the State Hope Scale (SHS) and Spirituality Scales (SS). For data analysis, descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation and simple regression were performed using the SPSS WIN ver. 17.0. RESULTS: Spirituality scores showed a significant difference according to religion. The mean score of spirituality was 3.80/5.00 and the mean score of state hope was 6.36/8.00. Spirituality scoresand state hope scoresshowed a significant positive association (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study showed a significant positive association between medical social workers'spirituality and their state hope of. Future studies would be needed to further explorespirituality and state hope.
Aspirations (Psychology) ; Korea ; Social Workers ; Spirituality ; Statistics as Topic ; Weights and Measures

OBJECTIVE

To assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) in Marawi City regarding Hansen’s Disease (HD).

A cross-sectional study was conducted among the Barangay Health Workers of Marawi City. This study was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 was questionnaire development where the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) questionnaire was formulated and administered to six Barangay Health Workers for pre-testing. Phase 2 of the study included the survey and focus group discussion (FGD). A questionnaire comprising of 27 questions was administered to BHWs to assess knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding HD.

A total of 49 BHWs underwent the Phase 2 survey and six BHWs joined the FGD. The mean age of all the survey participants was 34.9 ± 19.3 years. Among the 49 participants, 40 (81.6%) were females. The knowledge of BHWs was found to be adequate only in six (12%) BHWs. Positive attitude was observed in 12 (24.5%) and adequate practices regarding HD were observed in 33 (67.3%) BHWs. First-hand experience of diagnosing HD patients was significantly associated with adequate knowledge (p < 0.001) and positive attitude of BHWs (p < 0.001). There was a significant association between > 5 years of experience as BHWs (p = 0.027) and first-hand experience in diagnosing leprosy (p = 0.005) with adequate practices of BHWs regarding HD. In the FGD, BHWs expressed their lack of training which highlighted the need for refresher courses on HD.

Knowledge about HD is low among Marawi BHWs due to their inadequate training. The attitudes and practices of BHWs are also affected because of deficient knowledge regarding etiology and transmission of HD. There is a need for adequate training and refresher courses on HD to increase the knowledge of BHWs regarding HD.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to explore the explanatory factors on the length of stay of psychiatric patients in various mental health-related facilities. METHODS: Subjects in this study were consisted of 1,028 psychiatric patients staying in 22 mental health-related facilities randomly sampled after proportional stratification by regions. The subjects in 22 mental health-related facilities including psychiatric hospitals/clinics, psychiatric welfare facilities, welfare facilities for homeless, and illegal institutions were interviewed by psychiatrists and social workers with clinical experience. Demographic characteristics, socioeconomic support, diagnosis/history of illness, clinical symptom/functional disability and type of facilities were investigated and included in the multiple regression models to examine their influence on the length of stay. RESULTS: Two thirds of total variance of length of stay were explained by the independent variables in this study, and the type of facilities had the most explanatory power. In addition to type of facilities, sex, age, economic status, type of medical security, familial support, living condition before admission, diagnosis, dual diagnosis, age of onset of illness and number of admissions were significant explanatory factors. CONCLUSION: This study provides bases for specific strategies to develop efficient mental health facilities and community mental health system by disclosing the important explanatory factors for length of stay.
Age of Onset ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Dual (Psychiatry) ; Humans ; Length of Stay* ; Mental Health ; Psychiatry ; Social Conditions ; Social Workers

OBJECTIVE: The current study investigated the burnout and secondary traumatic stress of service providers for North Korean (NK) refugees based on the conceptual framework of theJob Demands-Resources (JD-R) model of workplace burnout. METHODS: A cross-sectional self-administered survey was conducted with a national sample consisting of all 63 organizations in direct services to North Korean refugees. Of the estimated total number of 230 service providers comprising of social workers, psychotherapists, job counselors and paraprofessional counselors, 179 completed the survey, a 77.8% return rate. RESULTS: While job resources such as personal commitment to work and organizational support indicated inverse relations to burnout, job demands such as workload, work environment and secondary traumatic stress (STS) showed a positive relationship to worker burnout. The STS were present in more than half of the respondents (51.3%), of which 20.7% of them indicating a severe level of STS. The STS proved to be the most significant risk to worker burnout as it showed strong relations to all three dimensions of burnout. CONCLUSION: Structural issues of chronic work overload and poor work environment need to be addressed to reduce staff burnout. STS is a serious occupational hazard in working with North Korean refugees.
Burnout, Professional ; Compassion Fatigue* ; Counseling ; Humans ; Psychotherapy ; Refugees* ; Social Work ; Social Workers ; Surveys and Questionnaires