Job Summary:
Under the direction of, and in collaboration with, the Administrative Director, the Manager, Social Work and Program Services (Manager) will coordinate, oversee, and participate in the appropriate staffing patterns of patient care units as assigned (Units). She/he will promote the mental health services concept and provide direction, but foster autonomy and critical thinking excellence in the professional staff, intervening as necessary to enhance patient outcomes.
Responsibilities:
- Supervision - Supervises mental health therapy, activity therapy, and discharge planning staff assigned to the Units. Reviews the duties of staff in relationship to quality, quantity and productivity, and provides staff with examples and feedback. Oversees the clinical coordination of Units' social work and program activities. This includes, but is not limited to, facilitating and mentoring team members in the performance of their clinical responsibilities as related to thoroughness, effectiveness and efficiency of all aspects of patient care. Ensures the units are safe by developing and maintaining appropriate staffing mix and measures. Provides clinical supervision to clinical staff, including ongoing guidance, mentoring, and performance evaluation.
- Patient Assessment/Care/Discharge Planning - Completes thorough and ongoing clinical assessments, with appropriate interventions, collateral contact, staff/patient/family collaboration, and desired outcomes. Models the above behavior and promotes it in other staff.
- Teaching - Serves as a clinical resource. Maintains professional knowledge and skills. Provides ongoing, individualized teaching to staff as needed, throughout the continuum of care. Serves as a catalyst for others to gain experience and knowledge continuously by providing learning opportunities on and off the unit. Fosters staff professional growth and enhances their clinical skills by delegating appropriate responsibilities to team members and encouraging participation on the Units, and in hospital-wide, regional, and network-wideprocesses. Delegates appropriately so that others learn processes of all kinds, gain autonomy, and understand excellence in practice.
- Communication - Demonstrates respect of the individual, and discretely discusses clinical issues with team members to ascertain possible knowledge deficits and improvement actions. Reports disciplinary issues to Administrative Director in a timely manner when above actions are unsuccessful. Assists in obtaining and disbursing information to the team related to patient care. Encourages team members to voice their needs, ideas, and constructive criticisms.
- Treatment - Performs clinical interventions as indicated, including individual and group therapy, and assists other staff members gain skills as needed. Engages patient families, guardians and other collateral contacts in treatment and discharge planning as needed pursuant to appropriate patient consent.
- Documentation - Functions as a role model and accurately monitors for medical record documentation deficits and encourages completeness by others.
- Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) - Participates in, and encourages others to participate in, CQI. Helps ensure data collection is complete and timely. Is open to suggestions and willing to experiment safely to develop and enhance services to customers. Provides the Administrative Director with ongoing updates on quality related issues (customers, staff, policy/procedure, environmentally related, etc.), and assists in fostering positive change.
- Program-Specific Competencies - Recognizes areas of clinical growth and develops, and/or helps others as needed to develop/update program-specific competencies. Oversees the progress of team compliance with mandatory education hours on a regular basis.
- Community Engagement - In collaboration with the Administrative Director, and other leaders as indicated, coordinates discharge planning with aftercare providers and participates in projects to improve patients' tenure in the community after hospital discharge.
- Programming and Milieu Therapy - Oversees programming and milieu therapy activities (e.g. art therapy, recreational activities, community-building sessions), ensuring therapeutic engagement and structured interventions. Guides and mentors team members who lead recreational and expressive therapy programs to enhance patient outcomes and the treatment milieu.
Qualifications/Requirements:Experience and SkillsMinimum three years recent experience in the specialty area. Thorough knowledge of social work theory, practice, practice standards, and technology in the specialty area. Good interpersonal communication, employee relations, patient-family relations, conflict resolution, and customer satisfaction skills as well as the ability to role model the WMCHealth values.
EducationMaster of Social Work degree awarded by an accredited graduate school of social work.
Licenses / CertificationsCurrent NYS LCSW certification.
