Social work perspective in integrated care for elderly people with chronic diseases

Abstract

In Lithuania, integrating healthcare and social services is a possible solution for the care of the growing number of older people with chronic diseases. When implementing integrated care in Lithuania, the aim is to include social work professionals who have already accumulated experience in organizing and coordinating the provision of social services to the elderly. The article aims to reveal the perspective of social work in integrated care by highlighting social workers’ roles. The literature review focused on two tasks: identifying the prospective roles that social workers implement in integrated care and observing the challenges of implementing integrated care. Results: The practice perspective of social workers in providing integrated care services relates to the realization of the roles of mediation, representation, advocacy, case management, and crisis prevention. Fulfilling professional roles can be difficult due to bureaucracy, organizational issues, and lack of integrated service funding solutions, as well as insufficient inter-professional teamwork and collaboration.