Social Worker-Palliative

“Sanitas is a global healthcare organization expanding across the United States. Our services include primary care, urgent care, nutrition, lab, diagnostic, health care education and resources for our patients. We strive to attract professionals who believe in our mission, vision and are dedicated to the service of our patients and their families creating a memorable experience through compassion, respect, and kindness.”

Job Summary

This is a professional social work position with the responsibility to independently conduct psycho/social assessment/evaluations; participate in a professional team review of patient care; provide casework and group work for patients and their families; identify community resources and assist patients and their families in connecting to these resources. This individual serves as a member of a multidisciplinary patient care team with liaison responsibilities with staff members of community organizations and other healthcare organizations. This position reports to the Program Director of Palliative Medicine and the Medical Director of Palliative Medicine and Hospice.

Essential Job Functions

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Social Workers (SW) provide psychosocial assessments, early interventions and support for people going through all kinds of difficulties in life by helping patients develop skills to cope with the impact of illness.

• Assesses patient/family psychosocial issues, which include an assessment of a patient’s environment, spiritual resources, coping skills and financial troubles
• Identifies in conjunction with other providers or team members, behavioral health, cultural, family, and social problems and their severity and interrelatedness to the medical situation.
• Assesses the caregiver strengths/weaknesses with a focus on methods to resolve issues
• Identifies and monitors caregiver and family claudication and defines intervention strategies to reduce the overload
• Effectively employs counseling and problem-solving skills to assist patients and families in understanding and compliance with a plan of intervention with short- and long-term goals and aligned with the medical treatment.
• Participates in the care of ACP program members, through multidimensional evaluation and care plans that include patients and families counseling.
• Use therapeutic techniques to help patients and families participate in healthcare decision-making and maintain good mental health during difficult medical journeys.
• Provide or facilitate in-clinic or outside referrals to psychosocial services as clinically indicated
• Guides clinical staff on how to manage psychosocial and behavioral health issues. 
• Patient and family crisis management.
• Maintains complete and accurate health records for each patient in accordance with policies and procedures.
• Manages prudent judgment when documenting in the medical records, paying special attention to confidentiality, privacy and information release  
• Shares social work assessments, goals, and plans of intervention with the staff to facilitate patient adjustment to current situations and to support patients and their families.
• Connects the program and patients with community networks. Interact with community services to promote a mutual (health and community) understanding of needs
• Adjusts work schedule as needed to meet the needs of the patients and families.
• Assumes responsibility for personal growth. Develops, maintains, and upgrades professional knowledge and practice skills through attendance at seminars, conferences and participation in continuing education. 
• Maintains current knowledge of community agencies and support services and makes them available for other staff members.
• Keeps informed of eligibility requirements for various services, including but not limited to Medicare and Medicaid regulations.
• Actively participates in meetings and committees preparing the pertinent information for the adequate development of these spaces and communicating challenges and improvement plans.
• Pursues knowledge of palliative care and its benefit to patients and families; attends conferences and seeks out learning; pursues advanced certification in palliative care social work.
• Optimizes outcomes and patient and family wellbeing through implementation of and or integration with volunteering networks
• Identifies and reports to leadership immediately any concerns or issues that places the team, patient or caregiver at risk.
• Perform duties autonomously by proper task scheduling to meet workload expectations.
• Fulfills with other assignments related to the role according to background and capabilities
• Maintain knowledge of and compliance with current state/federal rules and regulations for professional services.  
• Complies with all Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements in accordance with federal, state, and organizational policies.

Supervisory Responsibilities

This position has no supervisory responsibilities.

Required Education

• Master’s degree in social work from an accredited program.

Required Experience

• N/A

Required Licenses and Certifications

• BLS certification.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Able to establish and maintain effective working relationships with mentally or emotionally disabled persons and their families.
• Flexible schedule weekdays – weekends.
• Good communication and listening skills.
• Ability to show empathy and compassion.
• Strong leadership qualities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Relevant experience 1 year in Palliative or Hospice care.
• Experience with helping patients or community members with applying for benefits, housing, transportation, food or grants. Experience dealing with reporting for safety concerns with local or state agencies.
• Experience in providing counseling or other measures for patients and families dealing with difficult decisions.

Financial Responsibilities

This position currently has no financial responsibilities.

Budget Responsibilities

This position currently has no budget responsibilities.

Languages

This position requires Bilingual English/Spanish.

 

Travel

Remote - traveling to homes to see patients and attending meetings (combination of remote and in-person).

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. 

While performing the duties of this job the employee is regularly required to work standing up, walk, use hands to operate tools and equipment and must be able to exert regularly up to 10 pounds of force, frequently exert 30 pounds of force and occasionally exert 50 pounds of force to constantly perform the essential job functions. The employee will be frequently required to reach with hands and arms, bend, balance, kneel, crouch, crawl, push, and pull. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.

Environmental Conditions

Inside: The employee is subject to environmental conditions, protection from weather conditions but not necessarily from temperature changes. The worker is subject to noise; there may be sufficient noise to cause the worker to shout in order to be heard above ambient noise level.
 

Physical/Environmental Activities

Please confirm for the following questions if these working conditions are encountered Occasionally (1-33% of time on the job), Frequently (34-66% of time on the job), Constantly (67-100% of time on the job), or Not Applicable N/A

• Must be able to travel to multiple locations for work (i.e. travel to attend meetings, events, conferences). Constantly (67-100%)
• May be exposed to outdoor weather conditions of cold, heat, wet, and humidity. Constantly (67-100%)
• May be exposed to outdoor or warehouse conditions of loud noises, vibration, fumes, dust, odors, and mists. Constantly (67-100%)
• Must be able to ascend and descend ladders, stairs, or other equipment. Constantly (67-100%)
• Subject to exposure to hazardous material. Occasionally (1-33%)