Medical Social Worker

1. Financial Aid i.e. Fund Raising: Medicines, Investigations, Blood/Blood Product, Hospital Stay/Surgery, Orthopedic Appliances, Education
2. Case work counseling of patient to ensure completion of treatment and follow-up and awareness on protocols of SSD and trust
3. Aid for Accommodation Documentation: Collection of documents, filing record keeping preparation of statements, letters, appeals, receipt
4. Report: Daily, Monthly, Annual for hospital
5. Financial Statement: Audited report to Trusts, Sponsors, Individual donors
6. Networking to maintain ties and build report for aid with Trusts, Sponsors, Individual donors.
7. Beneficiary aid in form of Breakfast service, Lunch service, Tea, Dinner for mother of patients & Fruit, snacks biscuit for children
8. Ward visit/Trust visits donation drive to get clothes, toys, stationery for children
9. Entertainment/cultural program on festival day
10. Networking with hospitals for investigations at concessional rates
11. Emergency aid to IPCU patients and other serious cases
12. Referrals for concession after categorizing patients in keeping with directives of Charity Commissioner and statements/records maintained and submitted
13. Counseling related to organ transplantation Counseling: Medical social worker’s advise and counsel patients and their families. They explain the nature of an illness and advise the patient and family on how to effectively deal with symptoms and treatment. A medical social worker also serves as a grief counselor to help patients and families deal with the trauma of experiencing a chronic or acute illness.

Care Planning: Families and patients often do not know where to turn to get medical care. A medical social worker assists patients and families in finding and arranging services such as in home care, nursing home care and counseling.

Financial Assistance: Acute and chronic illnesses are expensive. Families may not be able to financially provide for the care of an ill family member. If the ill person is a parent, financial support for the care of dependents must also be dealt with. Medical social workers refer and assist patients in obtaining financial assistance, food assistance and health care coverage through city, state and federal programs.

Assessment: When doctors or nurses suspect that a patient is severely mentally ill, is a drug addict or is a victim of abuse, they enlist the services of a medical social worker. The experienced opinion of a medical social worker is highly regarded by hospital staff. The medical social worker evaluates the patient and reports back to the hospital staff. Together, hospital staff and the medical social worker collaborate to find the best approach to helping mentally ill, mentally incompetent, drug Addicted or abused patients.

Advocacy: At times, a medical social worker serves as a patient advocate. The medical social worker acts as an intermediary between patients and the medical community. They are the voice for people who have communication barriers or cultural differences that make effective communication challenging. Without the medical social worker, these types of patients often fall between the cracks–their health and emotional needs unknown.