How can social workers improve outcomes and costs in disease management?

Disease management relies on a team approach to chronic diseases for which good treatment regimens are known and national data are available. Limitations of and opportunities for disease management programs are explored and a case is presented that the inclusion of social work can enhance the performance, outcomes, and cost-benefits of disease management teams. Social workers can attend to depression, other mental health issues, resources, family support, and communication, when other team members may be less able to do so. Social workers are particularly well suited to help patients have voice in their treatment, and to participate actively as decision makers in their own care. Preliminary data show that inclusion of social workers in disease management programs enhances patient outcomes and cost benefits

How Can Social Workers Improve Outcomes and Costs in Disease Management?

Disease management relies on a team approach to chronic diseases for which good treatment regimens are known and national data are available. Limitations of and opportunities for disease management programs are explored and a case is presented that the inclusion of social work can enhance the performance, outcomes, and cost-benefits of disease management teams. Social workers can attend to depression, other mental health issues, resources, family support, and communication, when other team members may be less able to do so. Social workers are particularly well suited to help patients have voice in their treatment, and to participate actively as decision makers in their own care. Preliminary data show that inclusion of social workers in disease management programs enhances patient outcomes and cost benefits.Disease-management-programmes

Liberals, the Left, and Libertarianism: A Possible Synthesis

The central vision of liberalism and the Left may be seen as trying to achieve more social equity by subjecting business and the rich to greater controls, usually through government. Libertarianism stresses extension of the free market as far as possible, seeing the state itself as the source of the inequities the Left points to. Frequently, the authoritarian Right and the liberal Left have indulged in culture wars where policies or norm change are sought for individual behaviors, often to the dismay of libertarians. Is it possible to have libertarian liberals, or does liberalism mean greater control of culture? This panel, representing a range of political and economic opinions, seeks to see if these perspectives are truly at odds, or if they can contribute to one another