The Medical Social Worker

The Sangre de Cristo Hospice Medical Social Worker assists patients and families to deal with the personal and social problems of illness, disability and impending death.

The Medical Social Worker can:
• set up family meeting to discuss hopes and goals
• make referrals to community services e.g. financial help
• help with planning discharges to the home, hospice or hospital
• provide support to the person and the family
• help the family think of ways to take care of themselves
• help the person and the family cope with loss and grief

A Medical Social Worker provides counseling and support to both patients and their family. They focus on supporting people and their families with honesty, respect and without judgment, as their priorities and needs for living change. They provide particular support for families with children or patients who have no family living nearby and assist managing feelings of anxiety, depression and loneliness. They offer expertise to help solve difficult practical problems, financial advice and support, advocate where necessary and make referrals to other agencies. Our medical social workers have a clinical understanding of the disease process and its treatment and can act as a bridge between the patient, the family and the health care team. They provide information and education about the health care system. They can work as part of a specialist palliative care team or may work alongside other health professionals in providing care in the community setting. They are specialists in helping with grief and offer bereavement services.

The Hospice Medical Social Worker has training in end-of-life care. Medical social workers have in depth knowledge in working with ethnic, cultural, and economic diversity: family and support networks; multidimensional symptom management bereavement; interdisciplinary practice; interventions across the life cycle; and navigating health care systems. They are concerned with enhancing quality of life and promoting well being for patients, families and caregivers.

At Sangre de Cristo Hospice Medical Social Workers help with any number of the following:

• Assisting patients and families in making health care decisions based on personal goals of care.
• Ensuring the patient's end-of-life wishes are documented and known by assisting with advance directives, do not resuscitate (DNR) orders, or POLST forms.
• Contacting local agencies and/or community resources that may be of help to patients and families (i.e. hospice agencies, Meals-on-Wheels, Life Alert, etc.).
• Assistance with insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid paperwork. • Assistance with funeral planning.
• Identifying emotional and spiritual needs of the patient and their loved ones and finding appropriate support as needed.
• Assistance with bridging family gaps to bring loved ones together whenever possible (for example, help obtaining temporary Visa's for out-of-country family members).
• Assisting survivors with necessary arrangements and paperwork after death occurs.
• Assisting survivors in obtaining appropriate grief counseling.
• Identifying other needs of the patient and their support circle and assisting as needed.

Typically, one Medical Social Worker is assigned to a patient to provide continuity of care. The Medical Social Worker will build a relationship with the hospice patient and their support system and assist in areas of need they identify together. Most hospice agencies have a Medical Social Worker on-call for urgent patient and family needs after-hours as well.