Medical and Social Work as a Form of Social Assistance: Issues of Legal Regulation
Relevance. Medical and social work plays a decisive role in the process of socialization of a huge number of citizens who, due to their age and (or) state of health, cannot independently integrate into society. Moreover, the practice of organizing and implementing medical and social work indicates the presence of a number of problems in this area. Purpose. To analyze the legal problems of the organization of medical and social work as an integrated professional activity of a medical, psychological, pedagogical and socio-legal nature. Objectives: to find out the essence of medical and social services; to identify the main problems of legal regulation of medical and social work; To formulate recommendations for improving the legal framework of medical and social work. Methodology. The basis of the study was the principles of scientificness, objectivity, and the dialectical relationship of the phenomena studied. The specific methodological tools were logical and formal legal methods, as well as a method of comparison. Results: At its core, medical and social work is an integrated activity involving the provision of medical and social assistance. The current Russian legislation on health protection does not classify medical and social services as an independent type of medical services. At the same time, social and medical services appear as basic services in the legislation on social services for citizens, although medical services are an independent type of services under the jurisdiction of medical law. The reform of the legal framework for the provision of medical and social services is based on the desire of the legislator to clearly separate the roles of medical and social workers, as well as their areas of responsibility. Conclusions: At present, the inconsistency and uncertainty of the legal regulation of the sphere of medical and social services is obvious. This violates the integrity of the entire system of medical and social work and reduces its effectiveness. An urgent need in the field of legal regulation of medical and social work is the determination of the legal status of medical and social services. The legislation on health protection should provide for a special type of medical services - medical and social services. It is necessary to fix the content of medical and social services in the legislation on health care. Moreover, their generalized list in medical law should be coordinated with the content of social and medical services in social security law.