SWEC 4 || Module 4 ||

MODULE 4 Weeks 10–11  •  Diseases and Psychosocial Problems

 

 Ptra. Kathryn B Santiago, RSW MSW MMin
Instructor

MODULE OUTCOME Develop a deeper understanding of common physical diseases and health problems of the community.

 

Intended Learning Outcomes

1. Identify major communicable and non-communicable diseases listed in the syllabus and state the psychosocial issues commonly attached to each cluster.

2. Explain environmental, socio-cultural, and psychological factors in causation, treatment, and prevention.

3. Describe the role of the medical social worker with persons who are physically challenged and with nutritional, occupational, women’s, pediatric, and geriatric health problems.

Pre-Assessment

1. Which disease in your community do people still whisper about? What does the whispering do to families?

2. Name three reasons a person with hypertension might stop taking daily medication.

Lesson 4.1  •  How a Social Worker Studies Disease

You are not training to be a physician. You are training to understand enough medicine to practice safely and enough social science to see what medicine misses. For every condition ask four questions: (1) How is it caused and spread or developed? (2) What does treatment demand of daily life? (3) What stigma, cost, and family change follow? (4) What is the social worker’s specific task?

Causation is rarely only a germ or a gene. Environment (flooding and leptospirosis, indoor smoke and asthma, workplace chemicals), socio-cultural patterns (gendered delay in seeking care, stigma of leprosy or HIV, preference for first-level traditional care), and psychological factors (depression reducing adherence, fear delaying cancer screening) interact. This is the syllabus mandate: perceive relation, not memorize a medical textbook.

Lesson 4.2  •  Major Communicable Diseases

Tuberculosis

TB remains a leading public health problem. Treatment is long. The social worker addresses contact tracing cooperation, nutrition, workplace discrimination, interruption of treatment when income stops, and the shame that still clings to the disease. Link patients to DOH/NTP services and treatment partners.

STDs and HIV/AIDS

Confidentiality is sacred and legally protected, with defined exceptions. Assess risk of violence if status is disclosed, support adherence to antiretroviral therapy, help families deal with blame, and connect to peer organizations. Moralizing destroys the helping relationship.

UTI, RTI, diarrheal diseases, typhoid, polio

These often track water, sanitation, crowding, and immunization gaps. With children, assess caregiver knowledge and access to ORS and zinc, not only “neglect.” Polio prevention is a vaccination-and-trust issue; rumors need calm, accurate community work.

Vector-borne disease

Dengue, malaria (in endemic areas), and related illnesses rise with environment and climate. Social work tasks include family education, hospital accompaniment during danger signs, and community clean-up organization without blaming the poorest households for the city’s drainage failure.

Leprosy and leptospirosis

Leprosy is curable; stigma is not. The worker fights exclusion from family and work. Leptospirosis clusters after floods among workers in dirty water. Prevention is environmental justice as much as doxycycline protocols.

Lesson 4.3  •  Major Non-Communicable Diseases

Cancer, diabetes, hypertension, cardiac disorders, neurological disorders, and asthma dominate adult wards and out-patient loads. They are long-haul conditions. Cost of maintenance medicines, lifestyle change inside food-insecure homes, and caregiver load are the usual social work terrain.

• Cancer: breaking bad news support, treatment decision counseling, body-image and fertility grief, transport to chemotherapy, and palliative transition.

• Diabetes and hypertension: daily self-management in a culture of feasts and scarce vegetables; watch for shame when numbers do not improve.

• Cardiac and neurological disorders: sudden role loss after stroke or heart attack; rehabilitation motivation; home safety.

• Asthma: housing, occupational triggers, school coordination for children.

Lesson 4.4  •  Psychosocial Problems and Population Groups

Physically challenged persons

Apply the social model. Assess access to the hospital itself (ramps, toilets, sign language, readable forms). Plan rehabilitation, education or livelihood continuity, and peer support. Know RA 7277 benefits and local PDAO offices.

Nutritional disorders

Undernutrition in children and anemia in pregnant women are still common; obesity and diet-related NCDs are rising. Food is economic and cultural. Do not prescribe a diet the family cannot buy. Coordinate with nutritionists and 4Ps / feeding programs when eligible.

Occupational health problems

Factory, farm, construction, mining, and informal work produce injury, chemical exposure, and stress. Workers may fear reporting because they are contractual. The social worker documents work-relatedness, helps with employees’ compensation processes when applicable, and raises unsafe conditions through proper channels.

Women’s health problems

Maternal complications, reproductive tract infections, breast and cervical cancer, and violence-related injuries require gender-sensitive practice. Private interview space is mandatory when abuse is possible. Know RA 9262 pathways and women-and-child protection units.

Pediatric health problems

The child is the patient; the family is the unit of care. Assess attachment, school interruption, immunization, and child-protection red flags. Play, honest age-appropriate explanation, and sibling support are part of psychosocial care.

Geriatric health problems

Older persons face multimorbidity, polypharmacy, isolation, elder neglect, and loss of authority in the family. Discharge to a home that cannot supervise medicines is a predictable readmission. Advance-care conversations should be offered with respect for Filipino family process.

 

FAITH INTEGRATION Disease is not a simple punishment ledger. The Book of Job refuses easy blame. A Christian medical social worker resists the sentence “nagdusa siya dahil…” when it is used to abandon a patient. Compassion and accurate teaching can live together.

Learning Activities

Activity A  •  Disease brief

Each student draws one syllabus disease and submits a one-page brief: cause/spread, treatment demand on daily life, stigma/cost, MSW tasks, one prevention message in Filipino.

Activity B  •  Community factor analysis (group)

Pick one communicable and one non-communicable disease common in your area. On manila paper, map environmental, socio-cultural, and psychological factors for causation, treatment, and prevention.

Activity C  •  Population lens

Rewrite a standard discharge instruction sheet so it works for (a) a 70-year-old with low literacy and (b) a mother of a child with asthma living in a boarding house. Share both versions.

Assessment Tasks

1. Disease brief (individual).

2. Group factor-analysis presentation.

3. Short quiz on disease clusters and MSW roles.

Module 4 References

• DOH public health program primers (TB, HIV, NCD, dengue) as current references.

• Mendoza, T. (2008). Social work and social welfare.

• Zastrow, C. (2004). Introduction to social work and social welfare: Empowering people.

• RA 7277; RA 9262; RA 11036.