The medical social worker plays a crucial role in the acute care setting and is a fundamental player in the home health care team.
Your medical social worker is there to assist you with navigating the complicated healthcare system in an uncomplicated way. Services include:
• Crisis intervention
• Counseling with life-style changes
• Family counseling (grief counseling, teaching coping mechanisms with loss and change)
• Assistance in emotional adjustments to life changes
• Assisting with advance directives, power of attorney for health care and/or living wills.
• Resource planning and coordination within the community.
• Environmental and family dynamic assessments.
The medical social worker is no stranger to securing the right financial resources in order to procure the necessary medical supplies & services for the patients. Putting in recommendations for hospital beds, home modifications and procuring transportation subsidies for those in need are just a small sample of what a social worker may do. Medical social workers are also incredibly skillful at listening and encouraging caregivers and patients to take care of themselves and avoid negative and toxic thought processes.