Our intervention
When people are confronted with the diagnosis of a chronic disease, they usually feel lost, insecure, and extremely frightened, as if they were slowly and haphazardly wandering along an unknown path. Their reality changes and these people are forced to rapidly adapt to a new reference frame, with new priorities and new requirements.
This is also a time of significant vital crisis for their families, and therefore very intense, in which everyone is put to the test (Rolland 1994). As the evolution and prognostic of the disease progresses, they must readjust to a new and highly demanding reality, which will inevitably disrupt their structure, giving it new meanings and portrayals. It is in this new reality that we invest daily, in which we embrace and allow ourselves to become involved with the people undergoing treatment and their families.
Aware of this challenge, the Social Service team engages with each patient and these patients' families, working closely with the interdisciplinary and directly with the community.
Our daily practice includes the psychosocial follow-up of the patients and their family, where we all jointly build a life plan readjusted to the patient's new life condition.
The meeting of needs implies concerted work, primarily directed at the empowerment of those undergoing treatment and their family, bolstering their skills and activating the external resources required to ensure the autonomy of the person, in view of the disease, and consequent social reinsertion.
Every clinic will have a social worker to support you at every stage, and especially to help you and your family face this new life condition, always encouraging you to live life as fully and comprehensively as possible. You can be certain that we will accompany you on this journey.
Research
Some of our most important articles that have been published:
Olim, M. F.; Guadalupe, S.; Mota, F.; Fragoso, P.; Ribeiro, S. Sociographic profile of hemodialysis patients in Portugal. Journal of Nephrology Social Work. v. 42, n. 1, p. 9-20, 2018.
Available at: https://www.kidney.org/sites/default/files/v42a_a1.pdf
Olim, M. F.; Carrasco, L.; Pimenta, J.; Silva, F.; Torres, S.; Dantas, J. Treino e reforço de competências em doentes renais crónicos em hemodiálise – O Programa “Acredita+ e Segue”: Resultados preliminares; Revista Portuguesa de Investigação Comportamental e Social, 2017 Vol. 3 (2): 21-31
Available at: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=6126340
Olim, M. F., Guadalupe, S., Zeferino, S., Marques, M., Neves, P., & Conceição, J. (2018). Necessidades e recursos sociais em doentes renais crônicos hemodialisados. Serviço Social e Saúde, 17(1), 31-64.
Available at: https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/sss/article/view/8655202/19330
Olim, M.; Guadalupe, S.; Daniel. F.; Pimenta, J.; Carrasco, L.; Silva A. The Matrix of Complexity Associated With the Process of Social Intervention – “Emerging Trends and Innovations in Privacy and Health Information Management”; IGI GLOBAL; pp 85-114