Every March, the nation recognizes National Professional Social Work Month. This month, The Compliance Store’s latest addition to the Binder Basics series will focus on social services in skilled nursing facilities. Social workers play a vital role in residents’ lives and are some of their strongest advocates. Long-term care social workers collaborate with staff and clinicians to ensure optimal quality of life for residents.

Qualified full-time social workers are a requirement for a facility with more than 120 beds, but federal law (42 CFR 483.40) requires that each resident “must receive and the facility must provide the necessary behavioral health care and services to attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being, in accordance with the comprehensive assessment and plan of care.” This mandate places social workers at the center of ensuring that residents’ needs are met.

According to federal guidelines, situations in which the facility should provide social services or obtain needed services from outside entities can include:

• The absence of a family or community support system or legal representative;
• Expressions or indications of distress that affect mental and psychosocial well-being;
• Abuse of any kind
• Difficulty coping with change or loss; and
• Need for emotional support.

The Social Services Binder Basics edition includes information that can be used to help establish structure and responsibilities in a facility’s Social Services department. The binder addresses topics such as advocacy, resident assessment, care planning, care management, and behavior health services, QAPI activities and survey readiness.

Social workers are trained to take a holistic approach to looking at residents apart from their diagnosed conditions or behaviors. They endeavor to find out what is important to residents such as their wants, values and beliefs and what makes them comfortable or uncomfortable. Having this insight about residents is essential to advocacy. The binder addresses three main areas of advocacy- Resident Rights, grievance resolution, and abuse prevention, investigation and reporting. Social workers are tasked with several responsibilities if there is an allegation of abuse. From conducting a thorough investigation to protecting abuse reporters from retaliation, social workers play a critical role in ensuring residents are free from abuse and neglect.

In addition to helping advocate for residents, social workers are invaluable in assisting with behavioral health services. Social services workers can help observe residents to identify traumas and/or causes of behaviors. They also help with non-pharmacological interventions for resident behavioral disturbances through creation of a behavioral management program. Such a program may include several components such as observation and analysis of the behaviors as well as implementing interventions for each behavior. A behavioral management program is alternative to the use of psychotropic medications and helps residents with behaviors function at their highest practicable level.

With their unique insight into residents and their overall health, we should always show appreciation to the social work profession and the commitment that social workers make to advocating for residents’ mental and social well-being.

To learn more about the Social Services Binder Basics, contact The Compliance Store at www.TheComplianceStore.com or 1-877-582-7347.