Social work and general practice. A report of a three-year attachment.

Much has been written about social worker/general-practitioner collaboration, particularly about conflict of roles, differing functions, avenues of accountability, and problems of distributing scarce resources.We suggest that if the two professions are to work more comfortably together, then it is imperative that both also share the despair, hopelessness, anxiety, and anger that are the occupational hazards of each. We suggest ways in which doctors and social workers can look at the pain their patients are suffering to the benefit of the patient and their own working relationship.