Social work practice and outcomes in rehabilitation: a scoping review.
Nadja Freymüller, Tobias Knoop, Thorsten Meyer-Feil
PMID 39624816WHAT IT FOUND
Social workers in rehabilitation primarily handle financial security, return-to-work coordination, and psychosocial assessments.
Outcomes focus on participation and personal factors, but the review maps activities rather than proving efficacy, meaning these roles are documented but not tested for effectiveness.
Key findings
01The most common social work activities involve financial/social security issues and work-related return-to-work coordination.
02Reported outcomes from social work interventions are heavily concentrated in the ICF component of Participation, particularly vocational participation.
03The review explicitly states it does not make assumptions about the efficacy or effectiveness of social work interventions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The review maps what social workers do and what outcomes are measured, but it does not assess whether these interventions actually work. Most included studies came from high-income countries, limiting generalizability to other settings. There was an overrepresentation of neurological conditions due to the search strategy favoring indication-specific journals. The definition of 'social worker' varied across studies, including case managers and counselors, making it hard to isolate specific professional contributions.
Declared interests
The authors declared financial support from the Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg Publication Fund. No commercial conflicts were reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret this review as evidence that social work interventions improve patient outcomes. The review maps activities and reported measures but explicitly states it makes no assumptions about efficacy or effectiveness.