SOCIAL WORKER

General Summary

Under the supervision of the Home Health Administrator or the Public Health Nursing Supervisor, and the general supervision of the Public Health Nurse Administrator; provides case management services to clients in public health program areas. Makes assessments of social and emotional factors, develops long and short-term goals that reflect department, program and regulatory and accrediting bodies’ standards. Provides short term direct counseling and community resource planning services to clients.

Essential Functions

• Receives clients on referral and interviews them and their families to obtain information needed to complete assessments including social histories, economic conditions, health, and family, community, and other support systems.
• Assesses each client’s psychological and emotional status, support systems, spiritual needs and resource factors.
• Serves on an interdisciplinary team composed of professionals from various disciplines to develop a plan of care for assigned clients.
• Monitors implementation of the plan of care for each assigned client. This includes providing regular follow-up and monitoring services related to plan goals, objectives, and planned interventions and completing periodic reviews, required assessments, and status reports.
• Monitors clients for urgent/emergent social and emotional problems and attempts to resolve them.
• Coordinates services among all involved agency personnel as defined by the established plan of care.
• Contacts various agencies on the client’s behalf. Coordinates support services in areas such as housing, legal advice, clothing, and so forth.
• Maintains good working relations with other community agencies and advocates for clients by identifying needs to individuals and community and service agencies.
• Communicates with clients’ families, answering questions and concerns and providing information concerning resources available through the department or through other agencies.
• Maintains case records and completes reports as required by department and regulatory and accrediting bodies’ standards and the requirements of third-party funding sources.
• Participates on committees within the agency and in the community as assigned.
• Represents the agency by making presentations to explain agency programs, policies and procedures to the community.
• Ensures that clinical documentation regarding clients is completed, kept secure and confidential, and maintained consistent with Health Department policies and procedures.
• Endorses the mission, philosophy, and purpose of the department and program.

Other Functions

None listed.

This list may not be inclusive of the total scope of job functions to be performed. Duties and responsibilities may be added, deleted or modified at any time.

Employment Qualifications

Education:

Senior Program Services: Licensed Social Worker (BSW or higher); or Possession of a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, Gerontology or related field, with a minimum of two years Care Manager experience.

Maternal/Infant Support: Licensed BSW or higher required, with one year additional experience of providing services to families preferred.

Other Requirements: Possession of a valid Michigan driver’s license.

Qualifications:

Ability to communicate effectively orally and written.

Skilled in client assessment and coordination of services.

Skilled in communicating well with senior citizens and their families

Skilled in communication with service providers.

Skilled in use of EMR and various Microsoft Office products such as Word and Excel.

The qualifications listed above are intended to represent the minimum skills and experience levels associated with performing the duties and responsibilities contained in this job description. The qualifications should not be viewed as expressing absolute employment or promotional standards, but as general guidelines that should be considered along with other job-related selection or promotional criteria.

FLSA Status: Non-Exempt

Worker’s Compensation Code: 8832/8835

Occupational Employment Statistical Code:

Physical Requirements {This job requires the ability to perform the essential functions contained in this description. These include, but are not limited to, the following requirements and working conditions. Reasonable accommodations will be made for otherwise qualified applicants unable to fulfill one or more of these requirements}:

Ability to walk over uneven terrain and climb stairs.

Ability to access departmental files.

Ability to enter and retrieve information in a computer.

Ability to travel throughout the county to various locations.

Working Conditions:

Travels throughout the county in all types of weather conditions.

Delivers care to clients with a range of physical, mental and/or emotional problems in a variety of living conditions.