ABSTRACT
It is instructive to trace the various stages in the patient's journey to the social worker and to see how the original complaint was translated into a referral for social work and finally into a 'social problem'. However, in most cases the first interview was tentative and exploratory, social worker and patient trying to understand what the matter was and how to set about finding a solution. Nevertheless it seemed worthwhile in order to disentangle the process of referral and treatment to identify the main concerns expressed in the patient's first contact with the social worker; to relate these to the complaints previously presented to the doctor and also to the problems subsequently revealed. Of those who revealed family difficulties to the social worker, 30 per cent had presented their social problem straightaway to the doctor and 20 per cent had complained about definite physical symptoms.
