Exploring the Provisions in Medical Social Work Settings for Those Living with Diabetes: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Diabetes is a public health issue that constantly prompts social work practitioners to examine how to best serve those diagnosed. Social workers and other practitioners unfamiliar with the disease may think of a disease that is easily managed by checking one’s blood sugar and taking medications. Not many people imagine a disease that has the power to inflict extreme damage internally before manifesting in external signs and symptoms. Anyone is susceptible to this disease. Without the knowledge of proper treatment and access to resources on the part of practitioners, devastating consequences can arise for those with diabetes. Nowhere is this issue more prevalent than in communities of color and the underprivileged. Medicaid-eligible patients are particularly at-risk for higher rates of chronic diseases, while communities of color disproportionately suffer from higher rates of poorly controlled diabetes and remain at heightened risk for negative health outcomes. The following systematic review will include a detailed explanation of the disease process along with the devastating effects of untreated diabetes. Care coordination services will be evaluated to determine whether the implementation of those services decrease adverse health outcomes in diabetic patients. By systematically reviewing the literature, this study highlights the crucial need for interventions targeting social determinants of health factors that often affect communities of color and the underprivileged. Without those interventions to address those barriers, the benefits of care coordination services are minimal. are cancelled out. By considering the ways in which the disease has primarily been managed by medical professionals in the past, this will allow for an alternative view of managing the disease in the future.