The Institute of Medical Psychology, Psycho-Oncology and Psychosomatics develops specialised training programmes for social workers, focused on the psychosocial aspects of health, illness and care for people in vulnerable life situations.
The social worker plays a key role in understanding how illness, psychological distress or crisis affects a person's life, their family, relationships, work, social roles and their ability to make use of available resources and rights. Within the healthcare system, this role requires specific knowledge and skills for working with patients, relatives and multidisciplinary teams.
The training programmes cover topics such as clinical social work, psychosocial assessment, patient navigation, crisis intervention, psycho-oncology, work with people with severe and chronic illnesses, support for families and relatives, loss and grief, palliative care, patients' rights and access to health and social services.
We pay particular attention to skills for conducting psychosocial interviews and screening, identifying risk and protective factors, assessing social functioning and resources, planning support and effective teamwork with psychologists, physicians, nurses and other professionals.
The programmes also address complex situations from practice – a severe diagnosis, loss of independence, changes in family roles, social isolation, financial and employment difficulties, the need for long-term care, advanced illness and support for relatives.
An important part of the training is devoted to professional ethics, boundaries in the helping relationship, emotional burden, supervision and the prevention of professional burnout.
Training formats include lectures, practical seminars, case-based work, psychosocial assessment training, discussion formats and supervision formats.
Our aim is to develop clinical social work as a professional practice that connects the psychological, medical and social dimensions of care and places the person, not the system, at the centre of support.