Health Related Social Work A specialization within the Social Work degree program

Health is about more than medicine and the absence of illness. In the specialization “Health Care Issues in Social Work”, you combine perspectives from social work and health sciences and understand health as a biopsychosocial phenomenon. You explore questions such as: How do living conditions such as education, employment, and housing influence health? How can we improve health opportunities and develop health care services that are accessible, community-based, and participatory? And how does social work support people – particularly those facing challenging or disadvantaged life circumstances – in coping with the psychosocial impacts of illness? The specialization also draws on related disciplines such as social medicine, health psychology, and public health, integrating their insights with the methods and practice of social work. This prepares you to work at the intersection of health care and social services.

This specialization prepares you for a career in health care social work. You support people facing complex health-related and psychosocial challenges through counseling, care coordination, and health-promoting interventions. Typical career opportunities include hospitals, rehabilitation clinics, public health departments, social psychiatric services, addiction and substance use services, elderly care and disability services, palliative care, health insurance providers, community health initiatives, and workplace health management. At the same time, this specialization provides broad cross-disciplinary expertise, as health-related issues are relevant across almost every field of social work – from child and youth services and migration counseling to homelessness support services.