Print PageMedical Social Work Department
About us
The Mission of the Medical Social Work Department is to provide an effective medical social work service which facilitates optimum social and emotional wellbeing among patients and those affected by their illness.
Services
The department provides a range of supportive services to patients, families and those affected by illness and hospitalisation. Services include:
- Counselling relating to illness and its impact on their family. Issues regarding discharge from hospital and after-care are also addressed by the Medical Social Worker.
- S/he may help you access services such as further rehabilitation, community supports, respite care, convalescence and long-stay nursing homes.
- Information on welfare entitlements may also be obtained from the medical social work department.
- Our department also offers bereavement support and crisis help following traumatic events.
- Liaison with statutory and voluntary groups is also an integral part of our work. There are many support groups to which patients and families can be referred outside the hospital.
- Each medical social worker provides a service to one or more hospital consultant.
Bereavement Service
In addition to bereavement counselling provided by individual social workers, the Social Work Department co-ordinates a parent’s bereavement support day, the remembrance service for children who have died in the hospital, and an annual bereavement support programme incorporating a group process.
Psychosocial Assessment
A Psychosocial Assessment is used to help determine whether people are experiencing difficulties as a result of illness or admission to hospital. A Psychosocial Assessment includes assessment of patient’s social, emotional and environmental circumstances. It enables the Medical Social Worker to assess the impact of illness on a patient or his/her family and plan appropriate supports.
Patient/ Family Support
This refers to interventions by the Medical Social Worker which provide patients and families with general psychosocial and practical support at times of ongoing stress related to illness and hospitalisation.
Crisis Intervention
This service can include practical or counselling interventions offered to patients and families at the time of an acute crisis, such as sudden death, admission to Intensive Care, admission following an accident or assault.
Counselling
This is a therapeutic process between a patient or family member and the Medical Social Worker, focussing on adjustment and coping strategies in relation to life crises such as serious illness/trauma or bereavement.
Discharge Planning
This begins at the point of admission. Its purpose is to assess the psychosocial and environmental factors, which can impinge upon the patient’s transition from hospital back to their community setting.
Information / Advice
This may relates to social welfare benefits, Health Service Executive payments and services
Hours
Referrals can be made by the Hospital team, nursing staff, clinical support staff, families or patients themselves. Our core office hours are Monday to Friday 9 am – 5pm. Closed for lunch between 1 and 2pm
Contact
Principal Medical Social Worker
Telephone: 01 8092589 / 01 8093290
Our main reception is opposite Clinic D on the Out Patient Department corridor
Standards pertaining to Professional Practice
Professional qualified social workers operate within the parameters of the Code of Practice for Irish Association of Social Workers’ Members (2008) and the IASW Code of Ethics (2006). The recently established Health and Social Care Professionals Council will provide a statutory framework of regulation for the profession.