www.iaset.us editor@iaset.us NEED AND INTERVENTION OF SOCIAL WORKERS IN PUBLIC HEALTH CARE SERVICES AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT CHANDRIKA K. B Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Rani Channamma University, Vidyasangama, NH-4, Belagavi, Karnataka, India ABSTRACT The past 25 years have witnessed considerable developments in Public health in India. There are number of catalyzing forces behind the significant developments facilitating Public Health. National Health Policies and strategies for Health for All were formulated and implemented within the context of National Health and Socio-economic Development. For this vast number of health workers have been trained and developed. They have proven to be acceptable to the community and serving as a bridge between the community and health care programmes. The co-operation of human resources is required for health programmes and its utilization. Social workers play an important role in Community organization, awareness building and mobilization. They are actively engaged in examining social factors that contribute in promoting good health and control of diseases by giving social dimension of Health and well-being. They are making persistent efforts to understand health from social perspective in addressing health care and social development. Their works provide a comprehensive understanding of health issues from a social – cultural perspective. This paper emphasizes the role, need and intervention of social Workers in building the bridges between communities and government agencies working in this direction. It analyses the contribution of Social Science, which provide a comprehensive understanding of health issues from socio-cultural perspective. Further, the study finds and suggests the ways to integrate social and culture aspects for efficient Public health care planning and development. KEYWORDS: Social Workers, Public Health, Social Development, Intervention Strategies INTRODUCTION Definition of Social Work describes the roles and functions of social workers. According to Farley and Smith (2006:7), “social work is an art, a science, a profession that helps people to solve personal, group (especially family), and community problems and to attain satisfying personal, group, and community relationships through social work practice”. It is “a profession which promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. All nations need both social and economic resources to achieve national development. In this regard, social work can generally mediate the process of development through enabling individuals and the society to reach out for each other through a mutual need for self-fulfilment. social workers are mandated to mobilize and deliver a wide range of services to their clients. Social Workers are expected to assist in restoring, maintaining and enhancing the social functioning of individuals and the society; this responsibility entails the development, procurement and/or delivery of resources and services to meet the many and varied needs of their clients. In this sense, social work can be seen to be playing a major role in national development through empowerment of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups of people in many International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (IJHSS) ISSN(P): 2319-393X; ISSN(E): 2319-3948 Vol. 4, Issue 1, Jan 2015, 57-62 © IASET