PSYCHIATRIC SOCIAL WORKER

The PSYCHIATRIC SOCIAL WORKER provides individual, family, and group social work counseling and other social work treatment interventions to psychiatric hospital patients and assumes primary responsibility for discharge planning.

 DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 

1.Individual Evaluation and Assessment. Typical tasks: develops patient evaluations or court letters based on patient interviews and interviews of family members, friends, and other contacts in the community; describes psycho social functioning, nature and extent of disability, potential for rehabilitation, assessment of dangerousness, and identification of resources needed upon discharge; initiates and secures available resources. 

2.Treatment and Discharge Planning. Typical tasks: participates as a member of a treatment team to determine eligibility of persons for admission to the institution and identifies community resources as an alternative to admission; works with treatment team to formulate and periodically evaluate a plan of treatment which is in compliance with Federal entitlement programs and regulatory agencies; develops and implements discharge/aftercare plans for all patients; assists patient in planning return to community and arranges needed resources for continuing care; identifies, coordinates, and plans for financial needs of patients, assists patient in management of financial resources as needed, and acts as patient advocate in obtaining needed services. 

3.Counseling. Typical tasks: conducts individual, family, and group therapy sessions to reach therapeutic goals determined in consultation with the treatment team; trains students and interested staff in various therapy techniques. 

4.Documentation of Services. Typical tasks: maintains ongoing documentation of social work intervention, planning, and outcome by preparing reports and making necessary entries to treatment plan documents. 

5.Liaison Functions. Typical tasks: acts as a community and family liaison by initiating and maintaining necessary contact with the patient's family, the courts, Psychiatric Security Review Board, district attorneys, human resource agencies, mental health agencies, parole and probation personnel, residential care facilities, and related resource and regulatory agencies; provides support and consultation to community service providers in the form of guidance and counseling; compiles data and conducts studies on program effectiveness via follow-up of discharged patients. 6720 - 2 - 

RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS Employees in this class have daily contact with patients, relatives of patients, and treatment team members from a variety of professions to assess patients' needs, provide direct patient services, or arrange for services to be provided to the patient by others. Employees in this class are also frequently in contact (by telephone or in person) with other human resource agency staff, police agencies, court and Psychiatric Security Review Board personnel, attorneys, Social Security Administration and Veterans' Administration personnel, and certified residential care facility personnel to provide other necessary services to the patients. 

SUPERVISION RECEIVED Employees in this class work under general supervision. Work is reviewed by the unit program supervisor and social work department head for conformance with established policies and procedures, Federal regulations and current social work standards. Treatment and services being provided to the patients on a daily basis are also reviewed by the treatment team for conformance with the objectives outlined in the patient treatment plan. 

GENERAL INFORMATION Positions are primarily found within mental health facilities and institutions. They require the willingness to work in the environment associated with the positions' location and purpose. 

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES (KSA) General knowledge of normal and abnormal human development and behavior. General knowledge of recognized treatment interventions such as behavior modification; family, group, and individual psychotherapies; psychosexual education; substance abuse interventions; and use of psychotrophic medications. Skill in developing and maintaining a therapeutic relationship with mentally ill patients. 

Skill in communicating with patients and families who may be experiencing distress. Skill in conducting and teaching individual, family, and group therapies. Skill in patient and family education regarding various aspects of mental illness. Skill in interviewing to gather data needed to diagnose the needs of individuals and their families. 

Skill in preparing clear, concise written case narratives and reports. 

Skill in functioning as patient advocate to ensure that appropriate social services are being delivered which could include working with State and Federal agencies and community organizations for the coordination of services. Ability to work with resistive, acutely, and chronically mentally ill; character disordered; and substance abusing patients. Ability to understand and reduce the effects of institutionalization on patients. 

Ability to maintain effective working relationships with both professional 6720 - 3 - and paraprofessional institution staff and public and private sector professional staff. Ability to understand organizational systems and how to work within them for the benefit of the patient. Ability to assess the level of dangerousness of patients and the potential for explosive behavior. Ability to build and maintain effective working relationships with representatives of a wide variety of community agencies. Ability to work as a member of a treatment team. Some positions in this class will require the following ability: Ability to testify clearly, effectively, and professionally in Psychiatric Security Board hearings or in court as an expert witness. 

NOTE: The KNOWLEDGE and SKILLS are required for initial consideration. ABILITIES may be required for initial consideration, at any time during the selection process, or during a trial service period as a final stage of the selection process. Some duties performed by positions in this class may require different KSA's. No attempt is made to describe every KSA required for all positions in this class. Additional KSA requirements will be explained on the recruiting announcement.

Department of Psychiatry IMS Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

भारत देश में बढती हुई आबादी के साथ साथ यहाँ समाज में अनेक प्रकार की समस्याओ जैसे गरीबी, बेरोजगारी, अशिक्षा, परीक्षाओ में प्रतियोगिता के स्तर वृद्धि, पारिवारिक सम्बन्धो में ह्राष, पारिवारिक विघटन, तलाक, बटवारे, एकांकी परिवारों की संख्या में वृद्धि, लोगो के आकांक्षाओं के स्तर का अत्यधिक  ऊँचा होंने के कारण असंतुष्टि और मानसिक तनाव में वृद्धि हो रही है जिसके फलस्वरूप लोगो में मानसिक रोगो से ग्रस्त होने की सम्भावना भी अधिक हो गयी है। मानसिक रोगो के लिए भारत सरकार विभिन्न मनोचिकित्साल्यों की स्थापना की गयी है उन्ही संस्थानों में से एक संस्था वाराणसी के सरसुंदर लाल चिकित्सालय द्वारा संचालित एक विभाग के रूप में मनोचिकित्सा विभाग भी है। 

यहाँ पर मानसिक रोगो के इलाज हेतु अनुकूल सुविधाएं उपलब्ध है यहाँ पर कुशल प्रशिक्षित मनोचिकित्सा विशेषज्ञों , मनोविज्ञान विशेषज्ञों, मनोचिकित्स्काय  समाज कार्य कर्ताओ और नर्सिंग स्टाफ द्वारा मानसिक रोग से ग्रस्त व्यक्तियों  का इलाज किया जाता है। 

यहाँ पर मनोचिकित्सा विशेषज्ञ के रूप में निम्न लिखित डॉक्टर उपलब्ध है:

• प्रोफेसर ए. एस. श्रीवास्तवा 
• प्रोफेसर संजय गुप्ता
• प्रोफेसर मोना श्रीवास्तवा
• डॉ जे.एस. यादव 
• डॉ. पंकज सुरेका
• डॉ. पंकज गुप्ता 
• डॉ ए. के. पांडेय 

यहाँ पर सभी प्रकार के मनोरोग जैसे अवसाद, उन्माद, मनोविडिलता या स्किजोफ्रेनिआ, बाइपोलर डिसऑर्डर, मनोग्रस्तता बाध्यता विकार, निद्रा सम्बन्धी,  नशा मुक्ति आदि रोगो का इलाज किया जाता  है। 

यदि आप किसी भी प्रकार की सलाह और परामर्श चाहते है तो सरसुंदर लाल हॉस्पिटल के  OPD में कमरा नंबर 

210 में मिल सकते है। इसके बारे अधिक जानकारी के लिए हमें कमेंट बॉक्स में लिखे। 

The Role of Medical Social Workers in Psychiatric Community Outreach

Medical Social Work in IMH started in the sixties at Woodbridge Hospital when the first social worker came from the United Kingdom to set up services for the poor in Singapore.  Services then were naturally more inclined towards financial and welfare areas in view of the economic circumstances.

Over the decades, this role has evolved alongside the country’s progress economically. The MSW’s role in IMH has followed suit in its transformation. In the mental health setting, the MSW pays special attention to the social context of the person with mental illness (PMI), which entails the need to address social consequences arising as a result of the mental illness. The social context refers to the social environment of the individual and how it shapes the experiences of the mental illness. The social consequence refers to the impact of the mental illness on the person, family, and community (Bland 2001:147) 

The social worker is an important member of the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) in mental health services, providing bio-psycho-social perspective and intervention to support patients and their families.

In general, the core functions of a Medical Social Worker are:

(1) Psychosocial Assessment, to assess strength and resilience of the patient, family, social support systems to help the individual functions within the community,

(2) Family Education and Mediation, to educate the family on the physical and psychosocial needs of its members and how they can access to internal and external resources; to mediate on the conflicts so as to strengthen their family relationship and aid in problem solving,

(3) Counselling for individual, couple and family, to provide counseling to clients presented with poor mental health issues (such as depression and anxiety) due to relationship problems and financial stress; clients facing adjustment difficulty due to illness and disability and clients with caregiving issues,

(4) Risk assessment, to assess and manage risk due to self-harm and harm to others,

(5) Financial assessment, to administer Medifund Assistance, identify and refer cases of financial hardship, administer other financial assistance,

(6) Discharge planning, to work with the MDT in formulating discharge plan and

(7) Information and referral services, to link patients and caregivers to necessary community resources.

In the mental health field, the social worker not only has to perform the core functions but often has to incorporate other roles to adequately meet the needs of someone affected by mental illness. The social worker needs to manage the psychiatric condition of the person by assessing the mental stability of the illness, monitoring the medication regime, providing psychosocial rehabilitation and working on improving PMI functioning in the community.

In the National Mental Health Blueprint, there are three community outreach teams. Each team deals with the unique needs of targeted client across the human lifespan of Singaporeans. Firstly, the Response Early intervention and Assessment in Community Mental Health (REACH) focuses on the needs of school going children. The Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) provides psychosocial rehabilitation of adult population with mental disorder. The Aged Psychiatry Community Assessment & Treatment Service (APCATS) is a community –oriented psychogeriatric outreach service.  

Role of Medical Social Workers in REACH

The GP-school network was proposed by the Institute of Mental Health(Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) where mobile multi-disciplinary clinical teams (i.e. REACH) were set up to provide mental health support for children and adolescents in the community involving schools, general practitioners (i.e. family doctors and community paediatricians) and voluntary welfare organisations. The REACH team comprises of Medical Social Workers, Doctors, Psychologists and Nurses.

The key objectives of this project are to:

(1)   Improve the mental health of children and adolescents in schools

(2) Provide early interventions, support and training to school counsellors on mental health disorders

(3) Develop a mental health network for children and adolescents in the community involving

The role of the Medical Social Worker in the REACH team is to provide support and training to the school counselors, general practitioners and staff from the voluntary welfare organisations on ways to identify and assess children with mental health problems.

This is done through providing:

1)    A helpline to consult and seek advice on strategies to help children with emotional, behavioural and/or developmental disorders,

2)    Assessment, intervention and psychiatric treatment for children with mental health disorders when needed,

3)    Case conferences, talks or workshops,

4)    Individual and family therapy,

5)    Group therapy,

6)    Formulation and development of care management plans for referred students in collaboration with school counselors and the other community partners,

7)    Appropriate referral and liaison with other healthcare professional and agencies and

8)    A network of resources and information for dissemination to the referred student/ caregiver and FTSC.

Role of Medical Social Workers in CMHT

The Community Mental Health Team provides home-based psychosocial rehabilitation services and crisis interventions for persons with serious mental illness. The psychosocial rehabilitation services are based on the renowned Assertive Community Treatment Programme. The crisis interventions consist of helpline and mobile crisis team (Wei et al, 2005).

The major component of CMHT is clinical work. The second component is integration of care with the community through networking. The last component is providing training and support to the networking partners.

There are currently three Medical Social Workers in the team. Each Medical Social Worker provides social work services in respective zones namely, Eastern, Western and Central. He/she works with a multidisciplinary team consisting of doctors, psychologists, occupational therapists, nurses and social workers.

The six main roles of a Medical Social Worker in CMHT are:

1)    To provide social work and psychosocial rehabilitation assessment and interventions to support the main case managers,

2)    To provide care coordination by taking on the role of a case manager,

3)    To provide clinical opinion in multidisciplinary team,

4)    To spearhead networking efforts of CMHT,

5)    To provide training to community partners and

6)    To provide crisis interventions in mobile crisis team

Role of Medical Social Workers in APCATS

Aged Psychiatry Community Assessment & Treatment Service (APCATS) is a community –oriented psychogeriatric outreach service. APCATS started in January 2006 as a pilot project to provide psychogeriatric assessment and treatment for elderly in their own home if they are unable to access standard clinic-based mental health services due to frailty. APCATS aims to prevent unnecessary admission to inpatient mental health services and minimize the length of stay in hospital. APCATS also provides support for carers and reduces the burden of carers, hence allowing the elderly to remain longer in the community.

Medical Social Worker in APCATS works within a multi-disciplinary team to ensure the continuity of holistic patient care, by assessing and evaluating needs of the client and caregivers, and planning, coordinating, implementing and monitoring the interventions to address those needs.

 APCATS Medical Social Worker’s Scope of Work Include:         

1)    Respond to inquiries on the referral to APCATS,

2)    Conduct home visit after liaison and discussion with team members,

3)    Establish rapport and build therapeutic alliance with client and family members,

4)    Identify client’s/family’s need(s), formulate and develop appropriate individualised service plan in collaboration with other team members,

5)    Case-manage patients that require more social work input,

6)    Provide social and/ family support for caregivers within the boundaries of patient care,

7)    Conduct bio-psycho-social assessment of clients including monitoring signs of relapse and caregiver stress (eg. administering the ZARIT Burden Scale with caregiver) (Generic skill),

8)    Conduct social and family assessment for clients when necessary and to provide clinical services in terms of supportive counselling, family work, caregiver support, information and referral for services required, as well as work with and support family members in implementation of therapeutic care plans (Specific skill),

9)    Provide psycho-education to client and family in response to needs assessment,

10) Provide assessment of patient’s financial status via means testing and render the necessary assistance if they meet the criteria,

11) Participate in APCATS multidisciplinary meetings and

12) Carry out duties as assigned by the Programme Director.

In conclusion, the roles of a Medical Social Worker may change over time depending on the needs of client and organisation. The training and education of social workers should equip entry social workers with a broad based knowledge and skills. In addition, for social workers who are interested to work with PMI, they must be further trained to function to meet the unique roles of Medical Social Workers in mental health field.

References: 

Wei KC, Lee C and Wong KE (2005), Community Psychiatry in Singapore: An Integration of Community Mental Health Services Towards Better Patient Care. Hong Kong Journal of Psychiatry, 15:132-137.

Bland R, (2001), The Social Worker in Meadows G. and Singh B (Eds), Mental Health in Australia: Collaborative Community Practice, Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

What is social work?

SOCIAL WORK – BASIC IDEAS

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What is social work?

In a simple way, the term Social work can be defined as  “a profession which help the individuals to help themselves”.

In a country like India there are certain misconceptions are associated with this profession. Common man failed to separate professional social work from the voluntary social work due to these misconceptions. The real seeds of these perverted views can be described as follows;

1) Social workers failed to separate western professional components as well as traditional religious components from the social work which is practiced in India.

2) Terminology has not developed as social workers are pre occupied with solving problem of day to day nature.

3) Precision and accuracy is lacking as most of the findings are drawn from social sciences.

4) Social work deals with problems about which even a layman has some fixed ideas.

5) Adding to this confusion politicians, film stars and cricketers describe some of their promotional campaigns as social work, trained social workers since are paid and voluntary, and untrained are not paid, but both working side by side, layman often cannot understand the difference between the kind of activities that come under the label of social work carried on by a wide range of persons with differing backgrounds.

Has Social work a scientific basis?

Social work practice has a strong scientific base. Social workers believe in a scientific body of knowledge that borrowed from different disciplines of social and biological sciences such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, political science, economics, biology, psychiatry, law, medicine and so on. The knowledge in social work can be differentiated in three categories.

1) Tested knowledge.

2) Hypothetical knowledge that requires transformation to tested knowledge.

3) Assumptive knowledge which is practical wisdom requires transformation to hypothetical knowledge and from there to tested knowledge.

Social work strives to understanding of human nature. Social workers make use of this knowledge to solve problems of their clients.

Humanitarianism is the philosophy used in social work practice. It is “Scientific Humanism” as it uses scientific base. Social work is based on certain values which when organised constitute the “Philosophy of Social Work”. Social work is based on faith in the essential worth and dignity of the individual. Man is an object of respect not because he is rich or powerful but became he is a human being. Human nature endows the individual with worth and dignity which, every other human being has to respect.

Social work hesitate any kind of discrimination based on caste, colour, race, sex or religion. Social work is against “Social Darwinism” and the principle of “survival of the fittest”. This means that social work does not believe that only the strong will survive in society and the weak will perish. Those who are weak, disabled and or need care are equally important for social workers. The individual is understood as a whole with the same worth and dignity in spite of differing psychological, social and economic aspects.

The social worker believes in the capacity of the individual and also recognises individual differences. The individual’s self-determination is given importance. He should be understood from both domestic and cultural points of view. Social work is a combination of “idealism and realism”. To a social worker an individual is important but society is equally important. The individual is greatly moulded by social circumstances. But, ultimately the individual must bear the responsibility for his or her conduct and behaviour. The worker has to solve the problem on account of which the client is disturbed.

Scope and methods of social work

The concern of social work’s is to help people who are in need so that they develop the capacity to deal with their problems by themselves. It is both science and an art. Social work is a science in the sense that the knowledge taken from different disciplines forms the body of knowledge for a social worker and shake holder uses this theoretical base for helping people i.e., for practice. What theory postulates has to be put into practice. The required capacity to do it is known as skill.

Hence, professional social work with selected knowledge and the set of social work values has to be transformed into a professional service. A social worker has to establish a positive relationship with the clients. She should know how to interview and write reports. He or she should be able to diagnose i.e., find out the cause for the problem and finally should work out a treatment plan. An Assessment of the problem, planning for its solution, implementing the plan and evaluating the outcome are the four major steps involved in social work. Social worker’s keen interest in helping the client, alone will not solve the problem.

The methods of social work will help his/her to understand ways of helping people. Social work methods are:

Primary methods (direct helping method)

1) Social case work

2) Social group work.

3) Community organisation.

Secondary methods (Auxiliary methods)

4) Social work research.

5) Social welfare administration.

6) Social Action

These six social work methods are systematic and planned ways of helping people.

Social case work deals with individual problems- individual in the total environment or as a part of it. An individual is involved in the problem as he is unable to deal with it on his own, because of reasons beyond his control. His anxiety sometimes temporarily makes him incapable of solving it. In any case, his social functioning is disturbed. The case worker gets information regarding the client’s total environment, finds out the causes, prepares a treatment plan and with professional relationship tries to bring about a change in the perception and attitudes of the client.

Social group work is a social work service in which a professionally qualified person helps individuals through group experience so as to help them move towards improved relationships and social functioning. In group work individuals are important and they are helped to improve their social relationships, with flexible programmes, giving importance to the personality development of the individual in group functioning and relationships. The group is the medium and through it and in it, individuals are helped to make necessary changes and adjustments.

Community Organisation is another method of social work. Being made up of groups, a community means organised systems of relationships but in reality no community is perfectly organised. Community Organisation is a process by which a systematic attempt is made to improve relationships in a community. Identifying the problems, finding out resources for solving community problems, developing social relationships and necessary programmes to realize the objectives of the community are all involved in community organisation. In this way the community can become self reliant and develop a co-operative attitude among its members.

Social Welfare Administration is a process through which social work services both private and public, are organised and administered. Developing programmes, mobilising resources, involving selection and recruitment of personnel, proper organisation, coordination, providing skilful and sympathetic leadership, guidance and supervision of the staff, dealing with financing and budgeting of the programmes and evaluation are, some of the functions of a social worker in administration.

Social work research is a systematic investigation for finding out new facts, test old hypotheses, verify existing theories and discover causal relationships of the problems in which the social worker is interested. In order to scientifically initiate any kind of social work programmes, a systematic study of the given situation is necessary, through social work research and surveys.

Social action aims at bringing about desirable changes to ensure social progress. Crating awareness about social problems, mobilizing resources, encouraging different ‘sections of people to raise their voice against undesirable practices, and also creating pressure to bring about legislation are some of the activities of the social workers using the method of social action. It seeks to achieve a proper balance between community needs and solutions mainly through individual and group initiatives and self-help activities.

Functions of social work

The basic functions of social work are restoration, provision of resources and prevention. These are interdependent and intertwined. Restoration of impaired social functioning has two aspects-curative and rehabilitative. The curative aspect eliminates the factors responsible for the individual’s impaired social functioning. That means disturbed interpersonal-relations re corrected by removing the factors responsible for it. After removing the factors responsible for the problem, the individual has to adjust to the new remedy or device suggested. The individual is helped to adjust to the needs of the new situation. That is what is known as rehabilitative aspect. For example, a hearing aid is suggested as a curative measure for partially deaf child, whose social relations are impaired due to the problem. That is the curative aspect. Getting oneself adjusted to the hearing aid is the rehabilitative aspect.

Provision of resources has two aspects, the developmental and the educational. The developmental aspect is designed to enhance effectiveness of the resources and to improve personality factors for effective social interaction. For example Mr & Mrs X are living happily in spite of some differences of opinion. They are not going in for a divorce and there is no problem in their marriage. But with the help of a family counselling agency, they can sort out their differences and improve their relationship. This is what is known as the developmental aspect. The educational spectrum is designed to acquaint the public with specific conditions and needs for new or changing situations. For example a talk given by a counsellor to alleviate family and marriage problems is an educational process. The third function of social work is prevention of social dysfunction. It includes early discovery, control or elimination of conditions and situations that potentially could, hamper effective social functioning. For example starting a youth club in some areas for boys may help prevent juvenile delinquency. Pre-marital counselling for youth may prevent marriage problems in future.

What is Social Work?

What is Social Work?

Social work is an academic discipline and profession that concerns itself with individuals, families, groups and communities in an effort to enhance social functioning and overall well-being. Social functioning refers to the way in which people perform their social roles, and the structural institutions that are provided to sustain them. Social work applies social sciences, such as sociology, psychology, political science, public health, community development, law, and economics, to engage with client systems, conduct assessments, and develop interventions to solve social and personal problems; and create social change. Social work practice is often divided into micro-work, which involves working directly with individuals or small groups; and macro-work, which involves working communities, and within social policy, to create change on a larger scale.

GLOBAL DEFINITION OF SOCIAL WORK

The following definition was approved by the IFSW General Meeting and the IASSW General Assembly  in July 2014:

Global Definition of the Social Work Profession

“Social work is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. Principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversities are central to social work.  Underpinned by theories of social work, social sciences, humanities and indigenous knowledge, social work engages people and structures to address life challenges and enhance wellbeing. The above definition may be amplified at national and/or regional levels.”