Social workers know health.
You survived the flood — but you were exposed to filthy water and infection, and you’re also suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. You’re discharged from the hospital but you’re fearful about the situation awaiting you at home. Or you can’t afford prescriptions and lack medical equipment. You need a social worker to step in. Social workers can connect you to resources you didn’t know existed and help you navigate tough situations and challenging environments. Here’s a look at how medical social workers work on your behalf.
Grappling with life’s nitty-gritty
Social workers “understand everything that goes on in a client’s life — positive and negatives affecting a person,” says Carrie Dorn, a senior practice associate at the National Association of Social Workers. Social workers in health fields see beyond the relatively sheltered confines of a hospital unit, doctor’s office or clinic. They’re attuned to the larger environment affecting their clients — family, school and financial and economic hardship. Social workers are aware of stress in the community, Dorn says, such as violence and racism that people may experience.
Responding to natural disasters
When the South Carolina floods came, social workers reacted. Robert Carlton, a state social work consultant, and his department created teams including social workers and nurses. Services ranged from tetanus shots for people injured sorting through debris to psychological first aid for stress, anguish and trauma. Social work response is based on four pillars: financial, emotional, spiritual and psychological. And, Carlton says, it’s about connecting the dots between systems and agencies: “It’s one thing to get a tetanus shot — but another to go back to your [destroyed] home and you need housing.”
Manmade disasters, too
In horrifying situations like school shootings, “social workers can play an important crisis management role in the school and community,” Dorn says. “Social workers are always deployed when tragedies like these occur.” In terror attacks like the Boston Marathon bombing, social workers are there to help traumatized children, grief-stricken parents and shell-shocked communities.
Looking past hospital discharge
Doctors say you’re ready to go home, but is home ready for you? All sorts of worries spring to mind: transportation for appointments, money for medicine, an oxygen set-up so you can breathe. Or you may be returning to shaky housing or an abusive family member. Helping people through transitions — from hospital to home, or another facility — is a social work hallmark. “You’ve got to put people in a safe environment when they get home,” says Lorette Lavine, a social worker in the Chicago area.
Helping people change homes
Beth MacLeod, a licensed clinical social worker, or LCSW, in private practice in San Francisco, specializes in working with older adults. Making home visits sets social workers apart. “We really want to take environment into account,” MacLeod says. “Are [clients] having struggles with less-than-optimal home lives?” That could be an apartment up three flights of stairs for someone with severe arthritis. When conditions suggest it’s time to move on — perhaps from a cherished family home — MacLeod helps clients consider trade-offs and process feelings of grief as they transition to a new residence and phase of life.
Dealing with tough diagnoses
Like many social workers, Lavine has a wide-ranging background. Among her roles, she’s been a renal social worker at a university medical center. Kidney dialysis patients have multiple needs, Lavine explains. “It’s not only hooking them up with services and helping them apply, as they’re now eligible for Medicare and other government assistance, but helping them accept their end-stage renal disease diagnosis.” It’s a shock for patients, she says: “They’re like deer in a headlight.” With patients receiving four-hour dialysis treatments three days a week, she says social, socioeconomic and cultural issues arise.
Offering hope
Martha Escamilla-Arias, a transplant social worker, does outreach for patients on kidney dialysis, evaluating them for kidney transplant. (She works with liver transplant candidates as well.) “Those patients are going to be mine, any time they need social services,” Escamilla-Arias says. For instance, transplant medications can cost $4,000 to $5,000 a month, so she works with pharmaceutical and insurance companies to negotiate access. She enjoys educating patients. “They never think they personally could be a candidate for transplant,” she says. “Just the possibility is a great thing. It gives them hope.”
Serving in Congress
“As a social worker, I have been on the frontlines of helping people cope with issues in their everyday lives,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) told U.S. News in an email. “I started off fighting for abused children, making sure they were placed in safe homes. Today I am a social worker with power. Every day I take those values of being a social worker and put them into action, working on both the macro issues and the macaroni-and-cheese issues that support the day-to-day needs of families.” Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., has a social work background too.
Helping families at life’s end
Beverly Dotson, a community advocate and social worker with Gentiva Hospice in St. Louis, is on a mission to educate people about hospice. Otherwise, she says, “People don’t get services they need. The family winds up taking care of their loved one by themselves, not knowing which way to turn. With proper education and resources in place, the patient is more comfortable. The family is less stressed and anxious, more empowered and enlightened.”
Going the extra mile
When Dotson meets families, she asks what they need: “They’ll insist, ‘I don’t need anything.'” So she gets a family history and hears things like: “She was a God-fearing little lady who wore the biggest hat in church.” She asked that patient’s family about getting her a Mother’s Day outfit, and they agreed. Dotson petitioned a hospice foundation, and a $650 check was sent to the grandson. He picked out a white beaded suit dress at her favorite shop and a white linen hat with silver trim. “She didn’t make it to Mother’s Day,” Dotson says. Instead, “She was buried in that beautiful dress.”
Treating mental health problems
Some LCSWs hang out their shingles and work with clients — such as mothers with postpartum depression or children with behavioral problems — in private practices, offering treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy. Psychiatric social workers, who practice in a variety of settings, find the right resources so patients with severe mental illness, like schizophrenia, can function at their best in the community. Social workers work with the Department of Veterans Affairs in PTSD recovery and suicide prevention efforts, notes Carlton, who created and chaired South Carolina’s first suicide prevention task force.
In demand
Social workers emphasize that they’re part of larger teams, working with other health care professionals and forming community partnerships so people in need get the highest level of care. With all they do, it’s no wonder health and medical social workers are in high demand. “In 2012, there were 146,000 social workers in health care settings,” Dorn says. “That’s anticipated to grow to 285,000 in 2022.”
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How Social Workers Help Your Health originally appeared on usnews.com
