HIV: OPTIONS FOR MEDICAL CARE-GLOSSARY OF HOSPITAL PEOPLE AND PRACTICES: SOCIAL WORKERS
A social worker is a college graduate with two years of postgraduate training and a Master’s of Social Work. Most states require these credentials for a license to practice social work. The actual graduate training is primarily devoted to counseling. In a hospital, a social worker’s primary role is to help people plan what to do when they leave the hospital. These plans, called discharge plans, include making decisions and arrangements for nursing home placement, home care, and outpatient care. Good social workers also get involved with much more. They arrange for such special services as rehabilitation from intravenous drug use, treatment of alcoholism, psychiatric care, physical rehabilitation, and contact with community organizations. The job of the social worker usually ends when the person is discharged from the hospital. Social workers can be found not only in hospitals but also in clinics, in private practice, in community organizations devoted to HIV infection, and working as case managers assigned to an individual person. All U.S. hospitals that receive federal funds must have social workers; this means essentially that all hospitals have social workers, since Medicare and Medicaid fund so much of this country’s health care in hospitals. Information about social workers or case managers may be obtained through the hospital social worker, by referral from physicians, through contact with the local health department, or through the yellow pages of the telephone directory (listed under social workers, therapists, or counseling).*166\191\2*
