© British Association of Social Workers
The Significance of the Early Stage of Illness as a Focus for Social Work Help
Susan McMullen is a lecturer in social work at Lanchester Polytechnic, Coventry. After taking a history degree and post-graduate social studies, she qualified as a medical social worker and worked in hospitals in London. From 1967-68 she took the Advanced Studies in Social Work course at the London School of Economics before moving to her present post
Summary
This paper considers the experience of illness as a series of interrelated phases, in which the beginning phase which is the transition from health to illness is shown to have special significance. The common responses to this stage of illness are denial, welcome or inertia, each of which may give some forewarning of problems that may be encountered later in the illness. Traditionally social work help has focused onto the acute or convalescent stages, but it is suggested here that the beginning phase of illness offers a rewarding point for intervention, not only when opening new cases, but also among clients who are already known and where health problems may interact with other problems. The implications of this are explored both for agency policy as well as an added dimension of diagnostic understanding of individual clients no matter what the agency