Bridging Healthcare and Community by Expanding the Scope of Medical Social Work in Public Health Care in Sindh, Pakistan: Challenges and Solutions

This research study aimed to bridge healthcare and community and to expand the scope of medical social work in public health care, specifically in Sindh, Pakistan, by identifying challenges and proposing solutions within this context. Using qualitative semi-structured interviews with a sample of 18 participants (or respondents), our study explored the opinions of psychiatric social workers who provide professional help to patients with psycho issues through their service delivery in mental care hospitals, clinics, and community centers. However, our research findings explored many challenges, as expressed by participants during qualitative interviews, including the role ambiguity of health social workers among communities, resource scarcity, community-public power imbalances, the shortage of physical infrastructure, prevalent diseases, cultural barriers to treatment, people with disabilities, the impact of public organizational culture on their service delivery, and patients’ education and poverty. Our research suggests that health policymakers in Sindh address those challenges as solutions, thereby effectively enhancing the role and responsibilities of social workers in public health care at the provincial level.