Background to the study Due to changes in the social institution and other factors like industrialization, urbanization, and environmental factor, social workers have to deal with the new problems in the society, they direct their efforts towards conditions that degrade human personalities, meeting basic needs, relationship enhancement, coping up with stress, person attitude towards self and others Social work services are in demand especially in health care institutions, where they play different roles in addressing complex psychosocial problems brought about by illness.
Social worker’s main role is to bring change in the society, most of the time they do the society dirty work, the society dirty work are problems brought about by the society carelessness for example elders abuse, as a 0failure of civilized society to treat elders with dignity, or society ignorance. (Dominelli, 2009) this impacts negatively, on health, society and individual wellbeing, it is no doubt that social isolation can lead to depression or stress which may lead to I'll health.
According to WHO Alma Ata (1978), The Primary Health Care is essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community. The community must fully participate and at a cost that the community and country can afford, to maintain every stage of their development in the spirit of self-reliance and self-determination. It forms an integral part both of the country’s health system, of which it is the central function and focus, and of the overall social and economic development of the community. Primary care generally provides the first link for patients and families to health care settings; it is therefore accountable for meeting the large majority of each patient physical and mental care needs, which incorporate prevention, wellness, acute care and chronic care. A cording to Australian Association of Social work. (,2014) health services is underpinned by high level of complexity in relation to achieving health and wellbeing, this involve the psychological health aspect, and unmet needs which are largely ignored by physicians who rely solely on hard data. Social workers have perfect skills in this area of listening to the patient story and in the assessment of psychosocial needs which may not be determined using objective data as in the case of physicians. (Mclean et al. 2014 cite Rock & Cooper, 2000), who notes that primary care clinicians lack the time to provide preventive intervention and optimize chronic care. Daub et al. (2012) argued that psychologists, family therapist’s specialist, and mental health practitioners are not a perfectly fit for primary care, whereas social workers already have the necessary training, he argued that dominate integrated care discussion. This can include complex social problem, which cannot be addressed by physicians who are mainly focusing on objective data, without considering psychosocial needs that require social work services, this has contributed to low health outcome especially among patients suffering from chronic illness who encounter problems in adjusting, accepting medical regimens. Therefore, this paper has analyzed the contribution of the social work in the primary care and the importance of their involvement in the primary care. This literature add to the growing literature about the important role that social work plays in caring for patients with complex chronic illness and serve as a model for other practices seeking to integrate social work services into primary health care.