About Us
More About Social Work at BIDMC
What We Do
As members of the multidisciplinary health care team, clinical social workers are trained, licensed professionals who provide counseling, information, and assistance with care planning. Community resource specialists and advocates help to determine what community programs, services and benefits may be available to meet the unique needs of individual patients.
Social workers can assist with a variety of issues including:
- Coping and adjustment to a new diagnosis, illness or hospitalization
- Impact of illness on children and family members
- Grief, loss or end of life issues
- Family or relationship problems that effect health and wellbeing
- Anxiety, depression or psychiatric illness
- Alcohol or drug use
- Violence in personal relationships or the community
- Financial and insurance difficulties
- Housing problems
- Difficulty in accessing community services or programs
Confidentiality
Under state law, conversations with a licensed social worker are privileged and confidential. While the hospital social worker does communicate with your health care team, they are not permitted to disclose information to others without your consent.
The exceptions to this general rule include situations in which:
- there are reasons to believe that the patient will harm himself or others.
- there is a question of child abuse or neglect.
- there are specific orders from a judge.