In this master's thesis I presented the view of healthcare professionals on social work in the healthcare sector. The thesis contains a brief theoretical overview of the social aspects of health, the development of social work in healthcare and a presentation of the medical and social aspects of treatment. It then presents the roles of social work in healthcare and within this the position of social workers, methods of social work and the tasks of social work in healthcare. I also focused on the challenges of social workers in healthcare and social work in interprofessional cooperation. Social workers are part of the whole team, each covering their own area, to work together to achieve the goals of improving the patient's quality of life. Despite its important functions, social work in healthcare is frequently undervalued due to the lack of visibility, the systemic and often organisational lack of social work in healthcare and the complex challenges faced by social workers. In the empirical part, I aimed to explore the role of social work in healthcare as it is recognised and understood by healthcare professionals and their colleagues. I conducted ten interviews with health care professionals and their colleagues of different profiles from different health organisations. In relation to the theory and analysis of the interviews, I focused on four major themes, which I described in the results: collaboration with social workers, the role of social work in healthcare, interprofessional collaboration and the position of social work in healthcare. I would like to highlight the growing need for social work in healthcare and the importance of the social worker's role in treatment, as they focus on the holistic care of individuals, addressing not only their health condition but also the broader social aspects of their lives, while at the same time looking at the individual or the whole situation from a different perspective than healthcare professionals and their colleagues.
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