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Social and emotional problems in rheumatoid arthritis, -- a study of a group of Vancouver cases

University of British Columbia

The purpose of this study is to examine the aspects of arthritis as a social welfare problem as well as a health problem, and to show (a) that the social and emotional components of the disease have a significant bearing on the "treatability" of the patient; (b) that casework, community organization and public welfare must be involved in an adequate treatment programme. The broader implications of the problem are indicated by statistics from national surveys and other related studies. But the essential material is derived from a study of cases. These include thirty hospital cases, of which twenty three were interviewed one or more times, and seven were taken from social histories in which sufficient data were available. Thirty replies were received from a special questionnaire sent to the homes of a second group of patients. The study shows that (1) each of the patients had an average of 3-1 socio-emotional problems significantly related to onset or recurrence (2) the disease created additional personal and family problems which are classified and discussed in detail, all of which prevented the patient from getting or benefiting from adequate treatment; (3) there are gaps in present treatment and rehabilitation programmes which must be filled, and (4) medical social work has an important role to play in assisting diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation. It is hoped that this study of the social aspects of rheumatoid arthritis will clarify the role that social work must play in an adequate treatment programme, indicate the kinds of further research which would be valuable in this area and point up the need for a much broader perspective on the whole problem.

Text

2012-03-13

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/41355

Social Work

University of British Columbia

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