Hospice Medical Social Worker

HealthPartners is currently hiring a Hospice Medical Social Worker. The social worker provides psychosocial support based on initial and ongoing assessments, offers short-term counseling and case management, and connects patients and families with community resources. This role collaborates closely with physicians, nurses, and interdisciplinary care teams to deliver holistic, family-centered care that honors each patient's spiritual and cultural beliefs. The social worker helps patients and caregivers navigate illness, death, and grief, assists with care planning, and implements care that supports comfortable and safe dying, self-determined life closure, and effective grieving. The Social Worker will be primarily based at Regions Hospital, with occasional travel throughout the HealthPartners Hospice service area to conduct weekend admissions as assigned

Required Qualifications:

• Masters in Social Work from a CSWE accredited program.
• Licensed in Minnesota at the LISW level or actively pursuing Minnesota LISW licensure.
• Two (2) years' experience working in hospice, home care, or long-term care.
• Working knowledge of, and experience with, family systems theory, individual and family counseling, and group processes.
• Knowledge of community resources including Medicare / Medicaid, financial aid, county, state, and private social service agencies.
• Ability to collaborate well with interdisciplinary team.
• Ability to work independently, take initiative and think creatively.
• Demonstrated oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Current MN Driver's License and daily access to a reliable and insured vehicle.
• Computer literate
• Free of physical and mental disabilities, which would interfere with the ability to independently deliver care to patients in their homes.
• Visual, auditory, and tactile acuity sufficient enough to make complete and accurate observations.
• Comfortable and capable of driving in weather conditions typical of the Upper Midwest
• Proficient in speaking, reading, writing, and comprehending English.

Preferred Qualifications:

• MN licensure at the LICSW level.
• Five or more years of relevant professional Social Work experience, at least two of which are directly related to hospice or palliative care.
• Demonstrates ease and empathy in discussing sensitive topics such as end-of-life care, death, and patient goals, fostering meaningful and compassionate conversations

Hours/Location:

• Wednesday - Friday; 8:00am - 4:30pm
• This role includes participation in a weekend on-call rotation. On average, this equates to one weekend of on-call duty approximately every six weeks. To support work-life balance, individuals scheduled for a weekend shift will receive one day off during the preceding week (prior to Saturday) and one day off during the following week (after Sunday).
• During the week, the Social Worker will primarily be based onsite at Regions Hospital. On assigned weekends, responsibilities shift to field-based work, including traveling to patients' homes to complete hospice admissions and conducting routine visits to address patient needs.

Responsibilities:

• Provide social work services to patients and families consistent with a plan of care developed based on initial and ongoing psychosocial assessment.
• Referral for community resources to patients and families.
• Social Work consults with providers: physicians, nurses, psychotherapists, patient service representatives, etc.
• Ongoing case management.
• Short-term counseling and/or pre-therapy.
• Provide Social Work services to Hospice patients in line with department policies and procedures.
• Assist in development of Social Services program.
• Assist in other areas of the Social Services program as assigned.
• Identify the patient's and family's psychosocial needs.
• Develop and implement a plan of care consistent with initial and ongoing psychosocial assessment.
• Enhance the responsiveness of the environment and connect the patient, family and caregiver with community resources as needed.
• Provide interventions for symptom relief (e.g., fear, grief, depression, anger, etc.).
• Screen for psychopathology and intervening accordingly.
• Enhance the strengths of the family's system.
• Assess and refer for ongoing services.
• Document problems, psychosocial assessment, appropriate goals, care provided, interventions and patient, family, and caregiver response to each intervention.
• Support the patient's unique spiritual and cultural beliefs.
• Provide holistic family-centered care across treatment settings.
• Consult and collaborate with the interdisciplinary team and partners in care.
• Provide care consistent with Standards of Practice for hospice programs, Medicare Conditions of Participation and HealthPartners policies, procedures, and compliance.
• Implement care to achieve outcomes of comfortable and safe dying, self-determined life closure, and effective grieving for patient and family.
• Assist with Advanced Care Planning.
• Assist patients and caregivers in anticipating, providing for, and gaining confidence in meeting needs and achieving goals throughout illness and death.