--Helen Keller                                    

 

     Experienced social workers can easily recall a situation that involved the witnessing of suffering, a situation so difficult that the details of the memory remain clear throughout their careers. For me, that situation was the death of a mother from lung cancer. I was consulted late in the afternoon because medical staff felt the woman would not live through the night, and her children were there alone. When I arrived, I found her four teenage children clustered around her hospital bed. They were tearful and overwhelmed. Their mother was unresponsive, and despite provision of oxygen and medications, her breathing was quite labored. There was no father in the picture, and there were no relatives or close family friends available to help them. I did not go home that night, but stayed to provide emotional support during their deathwatch. It was heartbreaking to see the fear in their eyes as they waited for their mother’s breathing to stop. In early morning, it did. Their mother’s suffering had ended, but the grief of the four teenagers had only begun.

 

    Witnessing suffering is difficult. Regardless of self-awareness, self-care, and support, witnessing suffering on a regular basis can be overwhelming. Arbore, Katz, and Johnson (in Katz & Johnson, 2006) note that “being present to suffering on a daily basis places huge demands on our psyches, our souls, and our very being.”

 

    Eric Cassel, a physician, wrote a definitive article on suffering that has guided many professional interventions. He defined suffering as the “state of severe distress associated with events that threaten the intactness of the person” (1982), and described suffering and its impact in broad terms. Cassel acknowledged that suffering is ultimately a personal matter, even though one can suffer enormously at the distress of another person. Although it is accurate that suffering usually is linked with physical pain and related symptoms, it goes much further. Suffering affects personal relationships, personal performance, personal transcendence or meaning, even one’s personhood (Cassel, 1991).

 

    Loss and suffering often go hand-in-hand, and social work frequently entails working with individuals who have experienced, or are experiencing, loss. Examples include settings such as nursing homes, cancer programs, hospices, intensive care units, addictions, prisons, and foster care. Although the concept of loss has basic features regardless of the setting, each type of loss has specific characteristics, circumstances, and consequences. For example, loss of a loved one to cancer is not too dissimilar to the loss someone feels when a family member is sentenced to a long prison term, or diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, or removed from a family and placed in foster care.

 

    Temporary, sometimes reversible, losses also have consequences. These can include loss of employment, loss of possessions to a fire or natural catastrophe, financial losses, or separation from loved ones as a result of estrangement, immigration, or a lengthy deployment for military service.

 

    Then there are losses that have a personal, direct, and significant impact on the daily lives of the individuals who experience them. Loss of limb, loss of function or ability, loss of sight or hearing, or loss of reproductive capability are examples that often require ongoing and prolonged psychological adjustment and adaptation.

 

    Regardless of the type of loss, one characteristic is fairly constant—every loss is accompanied by a grief response of some intensity. At the same time, we understand the importance of resilience (Greene, 2012), and recognize that individuals are generally resilient, perhaps more resilient than we previously recognized (Bonanno, 2004). We also know that professional interventions may be needed and useful for managing some losses, but not as necessary for others.

• Participate as a member of an interdisciplinary team for case assignments, case conferences, and development of treatment plans and treatment plan reviews.
• Perform intakes and unit evaluations (Psychosocial Assessments).
• Carry a selected caseload using individual, group, and family modalities of treatment.
• Maintain patient records as outlined by Medical Records, Quality Assurance, and Policies and Procedures.
• Participate in mandatory supervision meeting, conferences, Grand Rounds, team meetings and/or facility meetings.
• Perform other duties as assigned by Program Director.

• Masters in Social Work; State Certification (LMSW/LCSW). 
• One to three (1-3) years of clinical social work experience preferred; (recent MSW Graduate accepted). 
• Should have experience working with the mentally ill. 
• MUST BE FLUENT WRITING/SPEAKING SPANISH AND ENGLISH.

The New Social Worker is accepting submissions for Social Work Month in the form of essays (up to 500 words), artwork, music, and other creative work that relates to social work in a positive way. Answer the question: What's so great about social work? Or write about an aspect of social work ethics/core values. Or reflect on a positive social work experience or a particular field of practice that you love.

 

Send Social Work Month submissions to Linda Grobman no later than February 20, 2018. Please include "Submission - Social Work Month" in the email subject line.

 

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