How Social Workers Help People Living With Illness

By Margaret Gibelman, DSW

Quite possibly the hardest thing about adjusting to a chronic illness is this – accepting that your life isn’t going to be to what it was before the diagnosis. This is not to say that you can’t have a fulfilling existence. Hardly. Just that it will be different, possibly with limitations and adjustments for you and everyone around you.

For many, that adjustment is almost as difficult to swallow as the illness itself. You miss your carefree self and you may be angry. You may be angry and possibly even depressed now that you have this illness, whether it’s Parkinson’s disease, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis or a host of other conditions for which there is no cure.

This is where a social worker can help by either offering psychotherapy, and providing your with a safe, supportive place in which you can share your feelings and frustrations, or pointing you in the direction of someone who can.

Likewise, a social worker can identify community resources that may prove helpful, such as support groups, or a visiting nurse, if you require in-home care. He or she can also help you to negotiate with your managed care insurance company to assure payment and coordinate overall treatment, maintaining contact with any other health professionals involved in your care.

Each of these functions is performed with the same goal in mind – to help you to enhance your problem-solving and coping abilities. In other words, to help you to live more fully and comfortably.

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social worker, clipboard, small child sits on father's lap

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