Duties and Responsibilities:
Provides evaluation, assessment, guidance, advice and counseling to patients in the home care setting.
Assessing the clients psychosocial status.
Assisting other team members in understanding the social and emotional factors related to health problems and terminal illnesss
Participating in the development of a care plan.
Providing social work services including short-term individual counseling, community resource planning, and crisis intervention.
Preparing clinical and progress notes.
Involving the family in the care plan.
Utilizing appropriate community resources.
Goal setting, discharge planning, and evaluation.
Participating in in-service programs.
In addition to the above, the Hospice Medical Social Worker provides services
In accordance with the plan of treatment including:
Identifying existing mental disorder and stress that exacerbates the disorder or symptoms related to terminal illness.
Assessing the patient potential risk of suicide and/or potential for abuse or neglect.
Assessing environmental resources and obstacles to maintaining safety.
Participating in the development and revision of a plan of care.
Providing social services including short-term individual counseling, crisis intervention, assistance in providing information and preparation of advance directives, funeral planning, issues involving transfer of fiscal, legal, and health care responsibility.
Identifying family dynamics, communication patterns, and involving the family/significant other in the plan of care.
Identifying and utilizing appropriate community resources and assessing patient/family/caregivers ability to access them.
Evaluating patient/family response to psychosocial interventions.
Assessing caregivers ability to function adequately.
Assessing need for counseling related to risk assessment for pathological grief.
Assessing special needs related to cultural diversity including communication, space, role of family members, and special traditions.
Identifying the developmental level of patient/family/caregiver and obstacles to learning or ability to participate in care of patient.
Addressing patient/family questions and issues.
Identifying obstacles to compliance and assisting in understanding goals of intervention.
Identifying support systems available to reduce stress and facilitate coping with end-of-life care;
Evaluating for long-term care when appropriate and assessing ability to accept change in level of care.
Communicating psychosocial information to inpatient facility when level of care is changed;
Assisting family in assessing financial resources when appropriate.
Identifying patient/family needs when discharged or when level of care changes.
Evaluating patient/family response to intervention when referred to community agency and satisfaction of service provided.
Assessing bereavement needs.
The Medical Social Worker must possess the following skills/knowledge/abilities:
Thorough knowledge of theory and practices of medical social work and of social factors affecting illness.
Thorough knowledge of Federal, State, Local, and Departmental regulations pertaining to Medical Social Work.
Good knowledge of current sources of information and literature pertaining to medical social welfare.
Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with patients and their families, co-workers, community health agencies, and physicians.
Knowledge of community resources and DSS.
Ability to assess complex psychosocial problems, make recommendations, and follow through with MSW plan of care.
The MSW is responsible for adherence to agency policies and for timely submission of patient charting.Employee adheres to all applicable federal, state, local laws and regulations.Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:
Graduation from a college or university accredited by the Council on Social Work Education with a masters degree in social work.
Must be registered to practice in NYS as a licensed masters social worker or as a licensed clinical social worker.
Minimum of one year of social work experience in a health care setting.
Previous home care experience is desirable, however, experience in a hospital, clinic, or other facility is acceptable.