Collaborative Models of Patient Care, Coursework Example

Role of Social Worker

Social workers work in hospitals and various medical centers provide services to patients with various issues. Social workers in hospitals help patients and their families understand various illnesses, provide emotional support to patients who have been diagnosed with life threatening illnesses, and provide counseling to ensure proper decisions are made (Auerbach, Mason, & Laporte, 2007). Social workers are a very important aspect of hospital teams. Social workers must have consent from doctors and nurses before they can assist in providing help for the emotional aspect of a patient’s illness. Social workers can provide a comprehensive psychological assessment of patients, educate patients/family members on the roles of the health care team, help to facilitate decision making, provide crisis intervention, diagnose underlying mental conditions, educate hospital staff on psychosocial issues, and promote and collaborate communication between patient and health care team (Auerbach, Mason, & Laporte, 2007).

The role of a medical social worker is very unique. According to Auerbach, Mason, & Laporte, 2007 , “the role of a social worker is to  listen with compassion and help to create a road map with tangible tasks so that the individual can focus more on living with a disorder than dying from a disorder” (Auerbach, Mason, & Laporte, 2007).  The medical field is a fast paced environment that is constantly changing.  On any given day in a typical hospital or clinic, a shift may be short staffed, dealing with communication barriers, a wide range of patients from various backgrounds, and patients seeking resources to prevent suicide and drug dependency. The medical field social worker deals with many challenges including mental health evaluations and diagnosis, referrals to community resources, financial assistance, child neglect reporting, and working with victims of sexual assault (Mizrahi & Abramson, 2000).

Appeal

The field of social worker in the medical field appeals to me because I am a very carrying person who works well with others. For as long as I can remember, my friends and family members have always come to me when they needed someone to talk to. They always told me that I was easy to talk to and that they felt better after talking to me. A social worker must be easy to talk to and friendly. I possess both of those qualities. Social workers are people who help others in need. They provide needed services to people who are facing challenges of facing death to physical and mental abuse. I believe the most important characteristic of a social worker is empathy. Most social workers work with people who are in a state of crisis or emotional distress. I believe that clients are more reluctant to open up or discuss personal matters with a person they feel does not care.  Also, a social worker must be flexible. A typical day for a social worker is not 9-5. Social workers must be able to think quickly and respond to various situations. To be a great social worker, one must be comfortable with working long hours and responding to emergency situations. I believe I possess all of these qualities because I am young and energetic. I live alone and I am not constrained by the family obligations and responsibility.

Engagement, Assessment, and Intervention

Social workers in medical settings are an interactive process that involves engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation (Dabelko, 2007).  Social workers can help collect, organize, and interpret client data for doctors. They can also assess clients’ weaknesses and strengths. When working with clients who have mental illness they help to develop mutually agreed-on intervention goals and objectives for the client to reach (Keefler, Duder, & Lechman, 2001). They can also assess the client’s readiness for change. One of the most important roles of a social worker is negotiating, mediating, and advocating for clients (Keefler, Duder, & Lechman, 2001).

However, social workers are useful in setting outside the medical facility. When a person is facing an illness, it not only affects them physically, but also emotionally, spiritually, sexually, socially, and emotionally(Koening, 2004). News such as a cancer diagnosis can impact a person’s identity. As a result, along with a physician, professionally trained medical social workers are needed to help client’s facing overwhelming circumstances. Social workers are a great asset to hospice facilities, the patients, and their families. Social workers will help people who are nearing the end of life. They can assist them with preparing for their final arrangements and dividing their assets. Facing the end of life is a stressful situation for the client and his/her family. Social workers are there to provide emotional support and expertise.

Summary Function

Medical social workers are an important asset to medical setting because they bring in psychosocial expertise that medical doctors and nurses may lack. In order to heal the whole person, there must be an awareness of emotional, mental, and cultural health (Koening, 2004). All of these factors can adversely affect the physical well-being of a client.

Many health care insurance do not cover mental health. Often health care insurance will only cover mental health issues if it required the client to be hospitalized. However, there may be a limit to how many days a client may receive benefits. For example, Medicaid only covers up to 190 days of psychiatric inpatient stays clients (Keefler, Duder, & Lechman, 2001).

Due to changes in the health care system, drastic changes have been made in the medical system to ensure cost containment.  As a result, many hospital social workers have lost some of their administrative responsibilities or expanded their control beyond social work services in order to maintain their employment. (Keefler, Duder, & Lechman, 2001).  The hospital is not separate from the social environment; therefore measures need to taken to ensure that medical social workers maintain their jobs. For example, “New developments in science and health care must be combined with environmental protection, because environmental policies in a hospital affect the quality of life of MSW’s within the hospital and those who live outside it.” (Mizrahi & Abramson, 2000).

Responses

In order to change the culture and habits of the medical field, collaboration between health care workers and medical social workers must take place. A hospital should be conveyed as a system, not several separate entities. There needs to be an increase in the involvement of all personnel to take responsibility for the overall health of each client that is served in their facility. Attitudes towards people with mental illnesses have led to those persons being stereotyped and stigmatized. Sadly, these attitudes are not just held by the general population, but by many in the medical field as well. Many people feel that social workers on deal with people with mental illnesses. However, this is not true. Medical and mental health social workers are trained from two very different perspectives. Nevertheless, these two perspectives are very important to the well-being of the entire person (Dabelko, 2007).

Often a patient’s home, work, or other life situations can have an impact on his medical health. In the early years, a physician’s role was released when the patient was released to go home (Dabelko, 2007). Now, during this transition, social workers play a pertinent role. For example, “Since the field of social work was introduced almost 100 years ago, the role of the medical social worker continues to focus on addressing family and patient psychosocial factors’ (Keefler, Duder, & Lechman, 2001). A person’s social environment can play a huge role in outset of chronic or acute illness.  When social workers are able to examine the client’s attitudes, beliefs, and values, they are able to help the physician provide them with a more effective plan of care.

References

Auerbach, C., Mason, S. E., & Laporte, H. H. (2007). Evidence that supports the value of social work in hospitals. Social Work in Health Care, 44(4), 17-32.

Dabelko, H., Zimmerman, J. (2007). Collaborative models of patient care: New opportunities for hospital social workers. Social Work in Health Care, 44(4), 33-47

Keefler, J., Duder, S., & Lechman, C. (2001). Predicting length of stay in an acute care hospital: The role of psychosocial problems. Social Work in Health Care 33(2), 1-16

Koenig, H. (2004). Religion, spirituality, and medicine: Research findings and implications for clinical practice. The Southern Medical Journal, 57(12), 1194-1199.

Mizrahi, T., & Abramson, J. S. (2000). Collaboration between social workers and physicians: Perspectives on a shared case. Social Work in Health Care, 31(3), 1-24