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Cancer Care > Social Services |
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Social Services
In a hospital and newly diagnosed with cancer, a hospital based social worker is usually the first person a patient talks to about their newfound condition and disease after their physician. Social workers will allow the patient the opportunity to talk about their feelings and let them come to terms with what they have learned.
Our social workers then perform a complete psychosocial assessment as we would with other patients, but focus more specifically on their diagnosis. During this time, the social worker will also determine what the patient's support system is and how best they can assist the patient.
The social worker will then begin to serve as an indispensable resource, providing the patient and family members with information on resources or how to go about accessing resources.
If a patient is not alert or oriented, work can only be done with family members and can include decision making, grief, and issues of impending loss. Social workers also counsel families on issues such as how to tell their loved one they have cancer.
Sometimes circumstances become difficult because families think they are protecting their loved one by not informing them about their condition and the doctor is withholding information at the families request. Also when doctors, families and patients disagree on the course of treatment, social workers often act as advocates on behalf of patients in relationship to their wishes.
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23845 McBean Parkway