Medical Social Services
What Is Meant by Medical Social Work?
Medical social work is an area that concentrates on fulfilling the numerous necessities of individuals, families, and large communities navigating the barriers to health and wellness. When a person is sick, they do not just need physical care, they also may require assistance for the emotional, financial and social difficulties that can arise. Dealing with the healthcare system can be overwhelming for them as it requires a lot of help planning their after-care growth or they may need counseling support to help them accept the changes in their lives. Professionals in this field especially work with other disciplines such as medicine, nursing, physical, occupational, speech, and recreational therapy. Medical social workers guide a person with all of these needs, in a variety of settings.
At Caregivers, we provide a well-educated and well-trained medical social worker at home who has experience with different patients. Our Medical Social worker can assist the patient and their families in the healthcare setting backed by strong medical knowledge. The person doesn’t have to go to places or be on stressful calls in order to choose what’s best and affordable for them.
Medical Social Workers Provide
A healthcare social worker can provide medical social services both as a guide and a sympathetic listener, they can play a key part in changing your healthcare experience and your medical outcomes.
Some of the major activities a medical social worker can help you with include:
Patient Screening
A Patient with a mental illness history or a patient who meets other high-risk criteria can undergo a screening process with a medical social worker. The healthcare social worker performs a detailed examination of the patient’s emotional, social, environmental, financial, and medical needs. The outcomes are shared with other healthcare team partners, then they can schedule a customized patient’s treatment plan and prognosis.
Patient Education & Counseling
Medical social workers can help the patient’s family and the patient to endure the personal and social reactions to illness and treatment. They also counsel and educate patients and their families on community resources, entitlement, and health insurance coverage. They may also provide support for group discussions or provide individual counseling.
Planning of Discharge
The healthcare social worker who is handling the case of the patient assures that the patient has been given all the medical services that the patient requires and proper care is taken in the home before a patient is discharged from a hospital or other medical structure. This means arranging for resources to pay for medical equipment and medications associating patients with medical social service providers, and coordinating with home healthcare services.
Advocacy of Patient
A medical social service provider is first a patient advocate than a guide. The major responsibility of the social worker is to ensure that all the wishes of his patient are followed appropriately. On behalf of the patient, a Social worker can directly advocate by enabling communication with healthcare providers or arranging for health insurance coverage.
Resources Our Social Workers Can Help Patients
Examining the necessities of a patient is generally the first step that a healthcare social worker will take. This process may involve interviewing the patient, their family, and their specialists. A detailed patient assessment will help a medical social worker understand what exactly a patient’s needs are, and how these needs can be fulfilled.
Medical social workers provide medical social services such as medical equipment rentals, home health care, transportation for doctor visits, and other applicable activities. They help their patients get admitted to hospitals or other medical faculty depending on their needs, they find funding citations, complete the paperwork, and find supporting aids for the patient's families.
They help with educational classes on aspects such as Alzheimer’s management, child care, and living with cancer. They are uptight with all factors of health care and mental health care. They also advise and participate in healthcare policy, legislative issues, and other services.
The right to:
- be treated with respect and dignity
- select a doctor that can give ample care
- make decisions considering healthcare
- be free of invective, neglect, or exploitation
- Be aware of one’s own medical information
- know how the cost of medical treatment before undergoing any kind of procedures
- inquire questions and get the answers in easy-to-understand terms
- Get emergency medical treatment regardless of the ability to pay
Frequently Asked Questions
Medical Social worker can assist the patient and their families in the healthcare setting and also provide assistance for the emotional, financial and social difficulties that can arise during the treatment.
A medical social worker can restore balance in an individual's personal, family and social life, in order to help that person maintain or recover his/her health and strengthen his/her ability to adapt and reintegrate into society with backed medical knowledge.
A medical social worker will be with you throughout the medical process, from intaking the patient for screening to discharging the person and guiding the caretakers and families post-discharge.
Yes, the medical social worker is available for emotional, financial, and social difficulties that can arise during the treatment.