The contributing authors of this volume--respected authorities on health care and social work--describe the shift from hospital based care to ambulatory patient and family focused community based services. Social Work in Ambulatory Care assists readers who need to develop, plan, and implement new social work roles for a changing health care system. Chapters focus on the implications of health care reform, based on policy or economic mandates, and provide specific examples of how social service providers can approach health care in a new era.

As the authors describe the shift in health care to ambulatory care and the role of social work in this new environment, they cover areas of potential concern to social service providers. Readers will be challenged to plan new social work roles in the future--roles that help advance social work’s own definitions of health and wellness.

Specific examples of creative roles for social work are described and several of the most important areas this guidebook analyzes are:

• the health care system under siege
• support groups
• managed care
• emergency room
• community based care
  
  For social workers in health settings, struggling with the questions of relevance, growth, and worth in a changing environment, Social Work in Ambulatory Care provokes new ideas about health care for the future.