A social worker is an individual mandated with the responsibility of helping individuals, families, and communities maintain wellbeing by empowering these entities with information and resources required to maintain wellbeing (Howe, 2014). Social workers play critical roles in promoting health and preventing diseases. A social worker can practice in a variety of settings, including nursing homes, communities, hospitals, and other health agencies. Based on the practice settings, social workers perform a variety of activities as a part of their responsibilities. One of the activities that the social workers perform is providing assistance with medications by either educating the patients about the medications or directing the patients to websites or facilities where they can access the information.
The scope of practice for social workers doesn’t allow them to prescribe medications. However, social workers can help patients manage and adhere to medications by educating the patients on the importance of medication adherence (Bentley & Walsh, 2013). Non-adherence to medications is one of the major causes for recurrent health conditions, which turn out to be an expensive affair for the health care industry (Gil et al., 2013). Social workers can use their educator skills to promote medication adherence. A social worker adopts a holistic approach in identifying barriers to medication adherence, and develops solutions to the barriers in conjunction with the patient.
Assistance with medications can either be delivered face-to-face by the social worker, or he/she can refer the patient to reputable facilities and websites where the patient can find the relevant information. Websites such as drug.com offers comprehensive information about drugs, including allergies, dosages, and side effects. A social worker can also direct patients to facilities such as pharmacies where the patients can receive pertinent information regarding medications.
References
Bentley, K. J., & Walsh, J. (2013). The social worker and psychotropic medication: Toward
effective collaboration with clients, families, and providers. Boston: Cengage Learning.
Gil, M., Mikaitis, D. K., Shier, G., Johnson, T. J., & Sims, S. (2013). Impact of a combined
pharmacist and social worker program to reduce hospital readmissions. Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy, 19(7), 558-563.
Howe, D. (2014). The compleat social worker. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
