Urgent and emergency care offered by social services: the role of social work

Introduction: The field of urgent and emergency care is one of those topics under consideration that is highlighted by the discipline of social work. This study aims to clarify the meaning and use given to the terms emergency care and urgent care by the social services, both from a legislative angle and also from the point of view of the social workers that intervene in such situations, while also gathering proposals for improvement related to training. Material and methods: Using a qualitative methodology, we proceeded to analyse the content of the social service laws in Aragon, Catalonia and the Region of Madrid, as these are autonomous regions where significant action had taken place in this area in recent years. In addition, seven interviews with social workers from these regions that had a long history working in this field had been carried out. Results: Various nuances have been perceived in the concepts of urgent care and emergency care in the legislation of the three regions analysed, with the resulting differences in the interventions under consideration within each term. For their part, the discourse of the professionals shows further coinncidences, highlighting the importance of the work carrried out by social workers in this area. Discussion: The vagueness and ambiguity of the terms urgent care and emergency care are noted, along with the need to clarify their definitions, as well as the lack of specific training in these subjects in the official academic itineraries of Social Work.