BWH Social Worker - LCSW Per Diem
About The Position
The Social Worker provides direct clinical services to assigned inpatients, including individual and family interventions, case management, disposition planning, care consultation, and psychosocial assessments. The role may be assigned to a unit or may float to units as needed. The Social Worker participates in treatment teams and consults with other team members and collateral providers on matters within their expertise. The position includes completing timely assessments and progress notes, coordinating care with families, outpatient therapists, agencies, and other providers, and developing and documenting discharge and aftercare plans. The Social Worker helps patients and families understand diagnoses, symptom management, available resources, and recommended levels of care. The role also includes initiating applications for services, coordinating appointments, completing required discharge and managed-care documentation, and reporting suspected abuse or neglect according to Massachusetts law and professional standards. An LICSW may be required to provide clinical supervision to MSW/LCSW staff. The role requires trauma-informed, patient-centered care and knowledge of major mental illnesses, developmental stages, trauma, substance use disorders, family systems, and the needs of geriatric, adult, and adolescent populations.
Requirements
- Master's degree in Social Work or equivalent.
- Must be licensed or license eligible.
- If license eligible, must file a licensure application with the Board of Registration and provide proof to the Social Work Supervisor upon completion of the initial appraisal period.
- Knowledge of major mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, and the impact of family.
- Knowledge of developmental stages and clinical implications related to trauma-informed and patient-centered care.
- Knowledge of biological and sociocultural changes affecting geriatric, adult, and adolescent populations.
- Knowledge of substance use disorders and treatment issues.
- Knowledge of family systems dynamics.
- Competence in delivering trauma-informed, patient-centered care, including compassionate collaboration, defusing power struggles, assessing trauma histories and trauma-related behaviors, and implementing trauma-sensitive interventions.
- Ability to walk up and down stairs, use a telephone, and sit for up to 8 hours.
Nice To Haves
- Inpatient field placement experience is preferred.
Responsibilities
- Complete written psychosocial evaluations within 48 hours of case assignment and assume responsibility as social worker for assigned patients.
- Meet with patients on the day of case assignment and contact family within one day, taking short inpatient stays into account.
- Provide individual and family interventions consistent with assessment findings.
- Facilitate assigned patient and family groups and document participation.
- Communicate findings and progress from individual sessions, family therapy, and disposition planning to the treatment team and document progress in the medical record.
- Maintain progress notes in the medical record twice weekly.
- Present assessments and interventions at treatment-planning meetings, collaborate with other disciplines, and initiate planned interventions.
- Consult with outpatient providers and involved agencies as needed; contact outpatient therapists with patient permission and coordinate during the inpatient stay.
- Contact appropriate providers within one business day when a patient is involved with an agency or private treatment program, and document the contact.
- Advocate for and educate patients and families about resources and agency involvement needed to provide recommended services after discharge.
- Recommend appropriate levels of care and structure upon discharge, identify resources, and advocate for agency involvement when necessary.
- Initiate applications for services within 24 hours of an identified need, send completed applications within 48 hours, retain copies in the client record, and follow up with agencies.
- Notify the supervisor when assistance is needed obtaining services from external agencies.
- Organize meetings of outpatient service providers before discharge when needed and document outcomes.
- Notify the treatment team and supervisor when an outside agency conflicts with the discharge plan.
- Report suspected child abuse or neglect, or suspected abuse or neglect of a disabled or elderly person, to the proper authorities in accordance with Massachusetts law and professional standards.
- Coordinate information and interventions with psychiatry, nursing, rehabilitation services, and other collateral providers, and document collaboration.
- Establish aftercare appointments and communicate them to the patient and family.
- Ensure that a pharmacology appointment is arranged when a patient is discharged on medication, or alert the supervisor and attending physician if one is not in place; document when another person organizes the appointment.
- If assigned an intern, cosign the student's evaluation and complete the diagnostic summary as needed.
- Provide psychosocial education to patients and families about diagnosis, symptom management, and recovery resources; document understanding, learning barriers, and plans to address them.
- Use assessment and subsequent patient, family, and outpatient-provider information to develop an aftercare plan; complete discharge planning and document the patient's understanding.
- Attend all treatment team meetings, document planned interventions and problems identified in assessment, and consult with team members on relevant issues including case management.
- Complete required discharge forms and managed-care quality-improvement initiatives within specified time frames.
- Provide clinical supervision to MSW/LCSW staff if licensed as an LICSW and required.
