A Pathology of Economic Support with Focus On Financial Assistance for Social Workers in Medical Centers

One of the most important responsibilities of social workers is economic support of the needy patients based on professional evaluation and diagnosis. The present research is a qualitative contractual content analysis. Data was collected from 18 social workers of the headquarters, universities of medical sciences, and medical centers, following focused group discussion (FGD) method with multiple-question design. The findings obtained from analyzing the codes, subcategories, and themes/category were grouped as poor intra-organizational cooperation and collaboration and irresponsible inter-organizational challenges influential on the discount topic. The inter-organizational dimension involved topics such as the weakness of hospital HIS system, interference of others in recording the discounts, poor instructions, occupation of social work posts by graduates of other majors, poor documentation, lack of personnel and facilities, lack balance between the authorities and responsibilities, and the unfamiliarity of health workers with the nature of social work. The inter-organizational dimension included the poor performance of other supporting organizations, growing social paths and undocumented immigrants, insurance role, lack of attention to some of the vulnerable groups, imposed expenses, growing visits to public hospitals, and the culture of using public resources. According to the findings of the study, different factors influence the amount and type of the economic support that the social workers provide for the needy patients and this fact imposes a great expense into the healthcare system of the country. On the other hand, it has deprofessionalized the social work profession and created a negative and low level perception towards it in the society

Are older people more vulnerable to long-term impacts of disasters?

Hassan Rafiey,1 Yadollah Abolfathi Momtaz,2,3 Fardin Alipour,1 Hamidreza Khankeh,4 Shokoufeh Ahmadi,4 Mohammad Sabzi Khoshnami,1 Sharifah Azizah Haron3 1Research Center of Social Welfare Management, Department of Social Work, 2Iranian Research Center on Aging, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 3Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing (MyAgeing), Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; 4Department of Health in Emergency and Disaster, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran Background: Despite the growing interest in the study of disasters, there is limited research addressing the elderly population that lead to prejudiced beliefs that older adults are more vulnerable to disasters than younger adults. This study aimed to compare positive mental health between elderly and young earthquake survivors.Method: Data for this study, consisting of 324 earthquake survivors, were obtained from a population-based cross-sectional survey conducted in Iran, 2015. The long-term effect of earthquake was assessed using the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form questionnaire. A one-way multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) using SPSS (version 22) was used in data analysis.Results: Older adults scored significantly a higher level of overall positive mental health (mean [M]=34.31, standard deviation [SD]=10.52) than younger age group (M=27.48, SD=10.56, t=-4.41; P<0.001). Results of MANCOVA revealed a statistically significant difference between older and young adults on the combined positive mental health subscales (F(3,317)=6.95; P<0.001), after controlling for marital status, sex, and employment status.Conclusion: The present findings showing a higher level of positive mental health among elderly earthquake survivors compared with their younger counterparts in the wake of natural disasters suggest that advancing age per se does not contribute to increasing vulnerability. Keywords: aged, earthquakes, mental health, post-disaster, resiliency, vulnerabilit