Specialization Health Care Issues in Social Work

The bachelor’s degree program in Social Work: Health, Social Law and Social Management with the specialization in Heal Health Care Issues in Social Work addresses current challenges and combines skills in social work with health-related questions in a targeted way. Health is the unifying topic throughout the practical fields in health and applied social sciences.  
Students will acquire broad knowledge and skills in the foundations, theories, and methods of health-related social work. This comprises materials from fields such as social medicine, health psychology, health sociology, and the structures of health care. In view of specific action concepts and methods for health-related social work, the focus is on psychosocial counseling and advisement, coaching, networking, and social-spatial oriented coordination such as in case and care management. The aim is for graduates to be able to apply their specialized expertise in social work in the health care industry or in the health-specific area of applied social science.

Graduates will obtain a comprehensive health-related skill profile in the field of health-related social work. This will make them well-qualified for interprofessional activities and health-related tasks with a high degree of responsibility. The practical fields within social work can be within the health care industry itself, such as in an acute-care hospital, in a rehabilitation clinic, in social psychiatry, in addiction and drug counseling, in old-age care, in public health service in the public health department, or as part of the counseling services for specific illnesses, such as cancer counseling offices, AIDS assistance, or dementia counseling. Graduates may also enter practical fields of social work which are specific to health care in the applied social sciences. Examples are promoting health and prevention in daycare centers, social work in schools, company social work in a work-related context, and integration assistance for people with limitations.