PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING AND MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK
PHYSICIANS sometimes have difficulty in understanding why social workers are turning up in so many places, what social workers do, and how physicians can use their services. In the old days the family doctor knew all about the social problems of his families, as well as their physical ailments. This is not as true today. Social work as a discipline is a relatively new field, though helping the poor and the infirm is an ancient art. Moreover, family living in this generation is different from what it was in the last. The absence of older children and maiden aunts, the migratory nature of modern life, the lack of space for urban families, the break-up of many homes, these and many other problems have tended to complicate the rearing of children. Families probably need more outside help than they did a generation ago. Moreover, modern psychosomatic medicine is acquiring a new concept of what the doctor's role is. It, therefore, seems fitting for physicians of today to know more of social work. There are many specialists in that field. There is the child welfare worker, the medical social worker, the psychiatric social worker, the family case worker, the group worker and the school social worker.