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Hospice Brochure

As key members of the health care interdisciplinary team, Social Workers are available to assist with a wide variety of patient care and treatment issues.

Social Workers place special emphasis on the psychosocial components of illness. These include disability, coping with losses like employment, income, death of a family member, dealing with decreased physical and mental functioning, changes in living situation and many other issues.

Working with the patient, the family and the treatment team, the Social worker assesses problems and develops individual treatment plans which are appropriate for the situation. The social treatment plan may involve individual, group and family therapies, psychotherapy, financial and vocational planning, referrals to a wide variety of community resources and many other interventions. The social worker has a primary responsibility for discharge planning where coordination of an overall plan is required.

Each Social Worker in the VA Long Beach Healthcare System has a Master's Degree in Social Work (MSW). In addition, many hold a California license as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and/or have earned membership in the Academy of Certified Social Workers (ACSW) administered by the National Association of Social Workers.

Social Workers also participate in the profession education of social workers who are working toward their Master's Degrees. We maintain academic affiliations with University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Southern California (USC) and California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). Social Work interns are closely supervised by one or more of our staff Social Workers.

Multi-faceted Role of the Professional Social Worker

Discharge Planning

Discharge Planning is the designated responsibility of Social Work. The primary goal of discharge planning is to help the patient return to the community setting that best meets his/her continuing care requirements and to assist the patient to maintain their highest level of functioning at the least restrictive level of care.

Resource Specialist

Social Work is responsible for the identification of community resources which best meet the veteran's needs and for assisting the veteran to gain access to those resources. These resources may include community support groups, information about potential sources of disability income, temporary shelters, counseling programs, substance abuse treatment programs, employment information and numerous other community resources or benefits.

Patient and Staff Education

The social worker serves in a liaison capacity with other professional disciplines in providing psychosocial information. We help patients and families cope with the social and emotional aspects of illness or injury. We assist patients in problem solving, communication skills and Advanced Directives. We also provide patient advocacy.

Social Workers Also Help With....

Meals on Wheels
Veterans Benefit Information and Referrals:
Social Security Information
Medicare, Medi-CAL and other insurance
In-Home-Supportive-Services from County Social Services
Local Multi-Purpose Service Agencies
Adult Day Care and Adult Day Health Care
Transportation Access

Social Workers provide clinical services to patients and significant others in the Medical Center, in the home and in the community through specialty programs.

These include:
o Hospital Based Primary Care
o Outreach to homeless veterans through the Health Care for Homeless Veterans Outreach   Program
o VA Community Nursing Home and Residential Care Programs.
o Individual, Group, Family and Marital Counseling
o Assessment and Treatment for Substance Abuse
o HIV/AIDS Case Management and Group Support
o NHCU Family Council

For referral to a Social Worker

Your health care provider can refer you or you may contact a social work directly.