The Social Worker's Role in Genetic Counseling

Genetic counseling is a major aspect of medical practice. It is a new member of the medical field, focusing on the pathogenesis of genetic abnormalities.

Until now, the focus of genetic counseling was to ascertain the cause of diagnosis and inform the patient about genetic facts and possible medical options. Most genetic counselors ignore areas such as psychological adjustment and the location of family support resources.

For genetic counseling to be effective, the focus of counseling should focus on psychological and social coordination, focusing on providing treatment, counseling, education and communication services to patients and families. Social work can provide this expertise

Full text can be used as a scan copy of the original printed version. Please obtain a printable copy (PDF file) of the article full text (766 K), or click the page image below to browse the page. The PubMed link is also available for selected bibliography.

The aim of this practice is to demonstrate that a genetic clinic as a member of the genetics team needs a social worker and the hypothesis that social work needs to be involved in the field of medical genetics. Research was completed through literature research in the field of counseling in genetic counseling, participation of social work in genetic clinics, role of care in genetic counseling, and psychological research on genetic counseling. Literature in these fields is very limited. In the summer of 1971, a questionnaire requesting information on the role of social work in these clinics was sent to 90 genetic clinics.

In the past 50 years, the field of genetic counseling evolved, often changed roles, and adjusted the value of genetic counselors in this area. This progress can be monitored by reviewing literature on genetic counseling for decades and comparing the basic values ​​for a specific time period. In this paper, evaluation of genetic counseling service is based on four studies conducted in the 1970s and early 2000s. These studies are related to genetic counseling of neural tube defects proposed by Dumerne muscular dystrophy of Morris and Lawrence (1976), Emery et al. (1972), the role of genetic counseling in interdisciplinary metabolic clinics such as Hartley et al. (2010), and genetic counseling for people with mental illness (Hill and Sahhar 2006)

Genetic counseling is a communication process to discuss issues related to hereditary diseases 107,108 Typical genetic counseling involves a scientific, psychological, social family that is at risk or is affected included. An important concept in the practice of genetic counseling is relevant information exchange, presentation of patient-related options, and exploration of patient values ​​and beliefs. In traditional genetic counseling (future fertile parents), a non-beneficial approach is considered important. However, since specialists involved in medical reproductive aid are responsible for considering the welfare of children, a more beneficial approach may sometimes be used in this particular situation ("ethical Problem "section). ) Genetics)

Current problems in European medical assistance reproductive and genetics: research, clinical practice, ethics, legal issues and policies