While there are an overwhelming number of benefits, there are some difficult aspects of being a mental health care manager, such as getting providers to communicate with each other. For example, a client might have been prescribed medications from different providers, that could have side effects when taken together. Since these providers don’t communicate with each other, the patient is now suffering. One of the duties of a social worker includes getting providers to communicate with each other so the patient …show more content…
Many older adults no longer have children or grandchildren living in their homes to help them with personal care, which is why they rely on home care workers (Borst, 2010). The Social Support theory relates to people needed social support in order to have an improved health outcome, this is where the home care workers can provide that support to their clients. Some older adults are faced with health inequality, or unequal access to health care, due to ageism. Jennifer’s job is to make sure that each client gets equal treatment and equal access to health care because social workers promote social justice. Jennifer said many of her clients are experiencing liver problems, due to medications and substance abuse, congestive heart failure and diabetes. On the mental health care side, Jennifer said she finds patients are not living into their 80s or 90s, whether it be due to physical problems or effects of medications. On the economic side, Jennifer finds that around 78%-85% of clients are living in subsidized housing, where their main source of income is social security with some having a small pension. According to Borst (2010), aging adults are becoming victims of the health care system economically because medications and in-home care are extraordinarily high. This proves Jennifer’s findings that almost all the older adults she sees as clients are lower …show more content…
When discussing how the bio/psycho/social/spiritual perspective applies to the patient populations, Jennifer’s first response was stating how important this was because the job includes going into client’s homes. Biologically, Jennifer deals with discussing patient’s medical illnesses and how to better cope with the outcomes. The social workers gain an understanding on what the clients strengths are and base new medical plans on their strengths and what the clients want. Psychologically, patients may not be dealing with their illness properly and may need some counseling. Socially, Jennifer has a chance to check the environment the clients are living in which can tell a lot about the resources the clients will need or how to alter the way they are living. Spiritually, clients may have certain limitations regarding medications because specific medications may contain materials the client won’t eat. For example, if a client’s religion forbids them to eat meat, they cannot be prescribed a medication containing