MSRCNY Social Work Supervisor Support
The MS Research Center of NY
Dr. Saud Sadiq
1 year grant, $75,000
This grant will provide one-year salary support for the Supervisor of our social work department. The mission of the social work department at the MSRCNY is to provide our patients and their families with the concrete, therapeutic and educational services needed to enhance their physical and emotional well being and quality of life.
Our social work department has been in existence since 2002, with a staff including one master’s level social worker (MSW), a case worker and an MSW program intern. The length of service of the social workers at the MSRCNY has enabled the department to develop a very clear understanding of what it means to live with MS. This specialization in MS lends a unique perspective on what people feel and have to deal with when they are diagnosed with MS or have been living with it for years.
The social work department begins the helping process with an in-depth professional assessment of the person or family in their environment, taking into account their MS, their family composition, past coping strategies, socioeconomic status, and current support system. The social worker uses the information gleaned from the psychosocial assessment to intervene in the following ways:
- Disability Counseling - One-on-one meetings with social work staff to help people navigate the private, group, and Social Security Disability application process
- Insurance - Assistance in reviewing insurance plan options, targeting which important questions to ask the carrier before choosing a plan, HIPPA and COBRA questions answered
- Entitlements Eligibility - Information on government programs that may assist with income and health insurance. Referral to attorneys who specialize in Medicaid process for middle-income working people who would not normally qualify
- Employment - Counseling on what accommodations would help a person with MS continue in the work force, how to ask for accommodations, mediation between person with MS and his employer, and legal rights under the ADA
- Home Care - Assessment and referral to agencies that provide physical and occupational therapy, home safety assessment, and home health aides
- Meal Delivery - Referrals to meal delivery programs for people who cannot shop or cook for themselves;
- Transportation - Assistance in applying for Access-a-Ride, local paratransit programs and arranging ambulette services
- Hospital Liaison - Information-sharing and collaboration with inpatient social work and medical team upon admission to hospital to insure seamless planning for optimal homecoming
- Family Meetings - Arrangement of meetings between patients, their families and the medical team to discuss and problem-solve seemingly intractable problems
Recognizing that optimal functioning in the home and community is impacted by a person’s psychological strengths and weaknesses, the department has a commitment to caring for the mental and spiritual lives of our patients. To this end, the social workers who are trained in psychotherapy offer ongoing psychotherapy to individuals with MS and their family members when appropriate.
The social work department offers a range of ongoing and time-limited support groups for individuals with MS and their family members. A group is offered for people who are newly diagnosed, which helps them adjust to what it means to live with MS, answers questions about the disease and acts as an orientation to the many services offered by the MSRCNY. An ongoing coping group has been in existence since 2007, which focuses on sharing experiences and strategies for living with some level of disability caused by MS. A spouses group was just created as an opportunity for the spouses of our patients to gain support from each other in their unique experience as caregivers.
The social work department functions under the same quality standards of the entire MSRCNY: to provide the best care for people with MS. Evaluation of our program goals is through the Patient Representation Committee, which solicits patient/family complaints, comments and feedback about all of our clinical programs. Patient feedback is discussed by the committee, integrated into the services provided, and reported back to the patient to ensure his/her awareness that feedback was heard and acted upon.