Clin Social Worker LICSW [Palliative Care], 32 Hour Days, University Campus

Everyone Is a Caregiver

At UMass Memorial Health, everyone is a caregiver regardless of their title or responsibilities. Exceptional patient care, academic excellence and leading-edge research make UMass Memorial the premier health system of Central Massachusetts, and a place where we can help you build the career you deserve. We are more than 20,000 employees, working together as one health system in a relentless pursuit of healing for our patients, community and each other. And everyone, in their own unique way, plays an important part, every day.

Provide psychosocial support to palliative care patients and families and collaborate as an interdisciplinary team member for the development and delivery of treatment plans. In addition, this candidate would share the role of inpatient social navigator with another full-time social worker to ensure smooth and efficient daily operations of the inpatient consult team at University campus to improve patient care and flow and assist in facilitating the complex discharge needs of patients and families. Provides assessment of patients/families and their adaptation to patient's illness. Provides counseling as needed and ensures maximum patient participation in plans for discharge and recovery. Identifies system or discharge problems and develops discharge plans and presents options to patients. Assessment of all potential cases of abuse: child, elderly, disabled and/or domestic violence.

Major Responsibilities:

• Participate in daily team rounds and weekly interdisciplinary team meetings and contribute to case reviews, teaching and quality improvement.
• Ensure every patient has a comprehensive psychosocial assessment and plan of care documented and communicated with the clinical teams and case managers.
• In collaboration with the interdisciplinary team, help facilitate discussions with patients and families about goals of care and care planning, including education about community-based hospice and outpatient palliative care.
• Provide emotional/psychological support and counseling for patients and families (in both inpatient and outpatient settings as needed), including the use of integrative therapies such as breathing, energy work, mindfulness, cognitive reframing and other modalities.
• When in navigator role, carry the pager and respond to calls using a standardized intake & triage form. Assign and manage team members' caseload via the Epic patient list to ensure efficient and timely responses to consults and quality care.
• When in navigator role, ensure timely completion of urgent new consults including taking the lead on initial patient assessments as needed and reporting back to the clinical teams.
• Participate in the process of complex discharges and timely care coordination to ensure optimal care and smooth transitions.
• Identify with referring and palliative care teams which patients and families need psychosocial and care coordination support and participate in those encounters.
• Provide liaison function between the palliative care team and social work, care coordination and patient representative departments.
• Provide liaison function between palliative care team and community hospice agencies, home care agencies, long-term care facilities and other community services as needed.
• Provide training and continuing education for hospital staff on palliative care and hospice.
• Teach students, residents and fellows in palliative care concepts during bedside rounds, scheduled didactics and clinical rotations.
• Participate in development of a bereavement program, including condolence cards, post-hospitalization calls and identification of loved ones at high risk of complicated grief with referral to community-based resources. Future program development may include memorial services and support programs, among other possibilities.
• Participate in palliative care quality improvement initiatives. Evaluate the work process, seek feedback from team and suggest any improvements.

Position Qualifications:

License/Certification/Education: Required:

• Masters in Social Work
• Current Massachusetts Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) licensure.
• Additional training or experience in palliative care preferred but not required. Getting certification in palliative care within 3 years of starting would be an expectation.

Experience/Skills: Required:

• Minimum of 2 years clinical experience in hospital, long-term care or hospice setting
• Demonstrated ability in psychosocial assessment, knowledge of community resources, crisis intervention skills, ability in discharge planning, and ability to work with a multidisciplinary team.
• Data compilation and analysis skills.
• Excellent written and communications skills.
• Basic computer skills.

Unless certification, licensure or registration is required, an equivalent combination of education and experience which provides proficiency in the areas of responsibility listed in this description may be substituted for the above requirements.

Department-specific competencies and their measurements will be developed and maintained in the individual departments. The competencies will be maintained and attached to the departmental job description. Responsible managers will review competencies with position incumbents.

Physical Demands and Environmental Conditions:

Position requires work indoors most often in an office environment. However, work may also include monitoring patients' movements and activities resulting in the need for rapid physical response to unsafe patient movements. This includes standing, walking, running, reaching, bending, lifting, and stooping.