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Roles of a medical social worker
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The Medical Social Worker (MSW) is part of the multidisciplinary healthcare team, providing interventions to support patients and their families during the recovery from and/or adjustment to acute or chronic medical conditions. Patients' recovery and quality of life hinge upon the ability of the patient and family to cope and adjust to the impact of the the medical conditions and ensuing disability on their lifestyle, finances, employment and relationships. Poor adjustments and coping indicated by poor mental well-being can have profound impact on health and productivity. MSWs help patients and their families learn how to manage life crises due to acute or chronic medical conditions, and focus on improving their mental and physical well-being to achieve self-reliance. They also help reduce the burden of patients and their families from incurred social and healthcare costs.
The core functions of MSWs include:
There are also opportunities to work in the different medical disciplines and in specialized fields:
Medical social workers start by assessing the patient for psychosocial problems, which they may need help with. They determine what psychological, social or financial problems a patient is having due to their medical condition.
Hospital social workers will not see every patient that comes into the hospital. They will usually receive a referral from a doctor or nurse for social work services.
After assessing the patient’s needs, the social worker will intervene as needed. The assistance needed may vary depending on the patient’s needs. For example, some patients may need help connecting with services in their community, such as a homeless shelter or drug treatment support. Other patients may need help understanding their medical condition and navigating everything involved with their hospital stay.
Social workers also provide patient education on treatment options and help coordinate services needed after discharge, such as medical equipment. Medical social workers also arrange grief counseling or other mental health services for patients.
Patient Services
Hospital social workers provide counseling and support services to patients while they are in the hospital and arrange for continued help and care in the home once the patients are discharged. According to www.mayoclinic.org, They can counsel patients for issues such as: coping with illness or grief, abuse, and help with psychotherapy issues. They can provide services for patients who need help with financial or vocational issues. For services that they cannot provide directly, hospital social workers refer patients to outside resources for assistance.
Discharge Duties
Once a doctor has cleared a patient for discharge, it is the responsibility of the hospital social worker to arrange the services that the patient may need at home. If those necessary services are not in order at the scheduled discharge time, the patient’s release could be delayed. A delay in the date of discharge can result in an extended hospital stay for the patient. As outlined in the entry in www.wikipedia.org, once patients are cleared for discharge, their medical status is down-graded by the insurance company because a hospital stay is no longer medically necessary. When that happens, the hospital loses money. So, it is important for hospital social workers to manage every detail of discharge duties very carefully.
Teamwork and Collaboration
Hospital social workers cooperate and communicate with everyone involved in a patient’s care. Taking the patient’s personal choices into consideration, they make recommendations to doctors and staff about the services and care the patient may need at home. As described on in the job description on www.healthecareers.com, hospital social workers function as an advocate for patients and their families.