Towards a network of social health services: redefining discharge planning and expanding the social work domain.

Hospitalization for most people occurs episodically in an individual's lifetime, when the patient, someone with a past and future, is acutely ill. Particularly in the present health care climate "discharge planning" in hospitals will need to be redefined to address the real needs of people at health transitions. Programmatic initiatives by hospital social work departments are suggested as a strategy of moving toward the new concept of "social health care management." This paper discusses the background and a model of expanding social work domain in providing such a viable network of social health services.