Structure of Advocacy Services Provided by Medical Social Workers

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to elucidate the structure of advocacy services provided by medical social workers(MSWs). An anonymous self-report questionnaire survey was conducted by mail to a total of 3,991 MSWs who worked at hospitals and belonged to the Japanese Association of Social Workers in Health Services. Among the responses obtained, 1,191(30.0%)with no missing data were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Based on the results, the following seven factors were identified:“conscientizing”, “negotiating”, “providing information”, “reforming hospital organizational structure”, “reforming related institutions”, “raising awareness”, and “representing clients”. In terms of correlations between factors, a positive correlation was observed between almost all factors, and in particular, strong positive correlations were seen between “negotiating” and “representing clients” and between “negotiating” and “raising awareness”. These findings suggest the need to perform comprehensive services that consider the mutual relationships among these seven factors.