At Americus Hospice, Inc., each patient is assigned a social worker who works with the interdisciplinary team to design a care plan for the patient and family. The social worker is available to help patients, loved ones, and caregivers through the practical and emotional challenges that occur during the end-of-life journey.
It is not the responsibility of a hospice social worker to enforce any agenda, but rather to simply follow the patient and family’s lead. A social worker is on hand to counsel the patient and family, answer their worries, and support their wishes.
One function of social workers in hospice is to connect families with required services. These could include having medical equipment brought to the home, acquiring legal resources, or arranging respite care in California to relieve family members. The social worker does a home safety evaluation to advise the family on any areas that may cause the patient distress or difficulty. Social work in hospice also assists families with post-death plans, such as connecting with a funeral home, paperwork, and other delicate issues.
A lesser-known but the much-appreciated job of the social worker is that of emotional support. Consider your social worker to be your family’s fortress. He or she has tools to assist the patient and family in dealing with stress, thinking things through, coping with anticipatory sadness, understanding the dying process, and ensuring that all voices are heard. A social worker will give resources for expert grief counseling from local providers in some circumstances if there is a need for extra psychological counseling.
Dying is a difficult task. The function of social work in hospice care in Simi Valley, California, is to meet patients and families wherever they are on their journey and to help with difficult end-of-life conversations.
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