Psychiatric & Social Work Services

Coping with the stress of illness and hospitalization can be challenging for both patients and their families. We provide support to help patients and their loved ones navigate the medical system and find appropriate mental health resources in the community.

Our team of licensed clinical social workers considers each patient’s psychological and social functioning and provides assistance as needed throughout his or her stay. Emergency Department and medical staff refer patients who appear to have urgent psychosocial problems to a psychiatric social worker, under the supervision of the Behavioral Health Medical Director and on-call psychiatrists. The social worker is available 24 hours a day to provide assessment, crisis intervention, information, and referral services.

Issues that require referral to a social worker include:

• Drug and alcohol abuse
• Feeling or appearing emotionally out of control
• Acting in unusual ways
• Major problems with work, family, or friends
• Elder or child abuse or neglect
• Lack of basic survival resources
• Recent difficulty remembering or making sense of things

We collaborate with various community agencies to ensure that people who appear to be endangering themselves or others due to psychiatric problems are provided treatment in a safe setting. Our clinical social workers provide compassionate, high-quality behavioral health assessment services and support to patients and families.