‘It’s not just the here and now, it’s the near future’: The role of social workers as a temporal bridge when supporting older people in hospital

In the UK, around 20% of new requests for adult social care arise as a result of a hospital admission, and older people are the most likely demographic to be in need of social care support. This paper draws on interviews and surveys conducted with 108 members of hospital social work teams across the UK about their work supporting the discharge of older people from acute hospitals. We demonstrate that some of the unique contribution of hospital social workers can be framed using ecological systems theory. We focus on the way in which social workers act as a temporal bridge, highlighting the impact of chronosystems on the individual, and taking a holistic approach that includes consideration of the individual’s past, present, and future. Framing hospital social work using ecological systems theory can help articulate the value of social work in a hospital setting, especially as policy in the UK moves to favour shorter hospital admissions.