title: [Social work in geriatric clinics--between autonomy and functional organization].
abstract: Geriatric therapy is defined through interdisciplinarity, teamwork, and multiprofessionality. Besides questions of medical therapy, psychosocial dimensions of elderly are highly relevant. Social work is mostly described as an important profession in the process of geriatric therapy. This work refers to the presentation and discussion of the results of an interdisciplinary study to the role of social work in German geriatric hospitals. It shows that the role of social work is determined by the various perceptions of the professions. Another influence on it is by the structures of the hospital. Social workers defines their activities through the relationship to the client; the other professions recognize the tasks of social work in a very diffusely way, mostly reduced in connection with the management of dismission of the patient from hospital. The professional education of social workers is not well known by the nurses and doctors. The fact that social workers are mostly acting under the responsibility of doctors, leads to a definition of problems and aims from a medical point of view. In many of the hospitals there are distinct problems of communication and cooperation between the professions. If the profession of social workers wants to contribute to the reduction of these impediments of communication and cooperation, they must actively and constructively communicate with the other professions and become more clear about their own professional way of acting.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thierau
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005544:Forecasting; D016330:Frail Elderly; D005858:Germany; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000639:trends*; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000639:trends*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000639:trends; D012947:Social Work / Q000639:trends*
vernacular_title: Sozialarbeit in geriatrischen Kliniken--zwischen Autonomie und Funktionalisierung.