"Do you know who you can congratulate today? To six women from Fraternidad-Muprespa. Happy Social Work Day"

This year the motto chosen to celebrate World Social Work Day is “Good Living: Shared Future for Transformative Change”, with the objective of emphasizing the transformative role played by social workers in driving positive change and fostering communities that thrive through mutual respect and sustainability.

The International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), the International Council for Social Welfare (ICSW) and the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), have promoted this motto in relation to the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development 2020-2030.

On the occasion of this celebration and to better understand the day-to-day life of social workers in the NETWORK of centers and the hospital, we have spoken with two of the six social workers of the Mutual.

Eva Guardo, social worker at the Provincial Directorate of Madrid tells us her experience.

• What is the care of the social worker in the centers of the assistance network?

At Social Work we primarily treat patients with serious or very serious accidents. From the moment of the accident we provide accompaniment, support and guidance, which lasts throughout the entire process, even after discharge or possible Permanent Disability.  We work on all those psychosocial aspects that are disrupted when one suffers a serious accident: social, family, work, and economic aspects. We intervene in everything that is not strictly medical, but that appears with the accident and that if we manage to “untangle” it will significantly influence your recovery. We try to help the patient first face, and then adapt, to their new situation, working on all the psychosocial changes that a serious accident would cause to any of us.

• When does the social worker's intervention process in the network of centers end?
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We never really finished. The Stories always remain open.  We have patients who are called chronic and for whom we are the only contact of the Mutua, either because they need some type of orthopedic material that they did not need before or because they require a request for help that we process through Special Benefits, sometimes they even call us for consultations unrelated to the Mutua and we always try to guide them.

• What would you highlight about your work in these years of experience at the Mutual?

Social Work at the Mutual Fund is often unknown, but that does not mean it should be downplayed; rather, we must understand what we do to understand its importance. 

I would highlight the work of each and every one of the colleagues from the rest of the Territorial Directorates, Isabel Urgelles, Mar Bernat, Silvia Rodríguez and Asun Morilla, and Verónica Cordero, social worker at the hospital. It is a job that we do with all our effort and our fight.

We know how to put ourselves in the patient's shoes like no one else, this is provided by the discipline of Social Work itself, and we have an outstanding vision of the entire situation.

I believe that we have a fundamental role in working with families, who of course are part of the entire process of a serious work accident, and finally, as we often talk among ourselves, I would also highlight one of our functions that we call “fire extinguishers”, for that work of intermediaries between the patient and Mutua.

I would not like to end without mentioning Asun Morilla, a great social worker whose great involvement with patients I would highlight, who has been in the house for many years and is retiring this year. Social Work is undoubtedly a humanizing profession, and Asun is more so than anyone. We will miss his reflections and demands.

Verónica Cordero, social worker at the Fraternidad-Muprespa Havana Hospital, explains to us what her situation is like. work.

• What is the care of the social worker in a Mutua Hospital like the HFMH?

It is a close relationship, we help patients to have an expanded vision of all the resources they have, both internal and external, releasing in many cases the level of uncertainty caused by the situation they are in. passing.

Normally the profile of patients who come to our hospital has an average stay of about three days, which is very little time to delve into the intervention, mainly I detect possible needs and refer them to colleagues who are in the rest of the network.

In the year 2023 from the F-M Habana Hospital I carried out 1737 follow-ups and of them, 877 were first visits.

• When does the social worker's intervention process in the hospital?

Depends on the type of patient.We have patients with whom we intervene for years due to the case mix, although the intervention is usually more specific in those cases. Let us not forget that the patient who has suffered a work accident is our patient for life, so if new needs arise, which are caused by the accident he had when he was working in a company associated with Fraternidad-Muprespa, we continue to intervene.

In my particular case, when I am in the hospital, my intervention usually ends when the patient is discharged from the hospital or because I refer him, if necessary, to my colleagues in the network. I

• What would you highlight about your work in these years of experience in the hospital? And at Mutua, since you previously worked in the network of centers from the Northwest Territorial Directorate?

Having worked in the network offers me the possibility of having a vision of the work carried out in the territorial directorates, understanding and empathizing with the difficulties that my colleagues.

When I joined the hospital, I did so with great enthusiasm, but the beginnings were hard. Fortunately, today, I have a manager who knows and values ​​the work I do, and allows me to carry out my work with autonomy, judgment and responsibility.

Fraternidad-Muprespa has incorporated into its DNA the central element of this motto, which is the principle of “Good Living”, that is, true well-being can only be achieved when communities live in harmony with nature, striving collectively to achieve development balanced.

Happy Labor Day Social!