Manager, Social Work and Program Services

About the role

The Manager, Social Work and Program Services coordinates, oversees, and participates in staffing patterns of assigned patient care units to promote mental health services. This role provides direction while fostering autonomy and critical thinking among professional staff to enhance patient outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Supervision: Supervises mental health therapy, activity therapy, and discharge planning staff. Reviews staff duties for quality, quantity, and productivity, providing feedback and examples. Oversees clinical coordination of social work and program activities, mentoring team members in their clinical responsibilities. Ensures unit safety through appropriate staffing and measures. Provides clinical supervision, including guidance, mentoring, and performance evaluation.
• Patient Assessment/Care/Discharge Planning: Completes thorough and ongoing clinical assessments with appropriate interventions, collateral contact, and collaboration with staff, patients, and families. Models and promotes this behavior among staff.
• Teaching: Serves as a clinical resource, maintaining professional knowledge and skills. Provides individualized teaching to staff and fosters professional growth by delegating responsibilities and encouraging participation in hospital-wide, regional, and network-wide processes.
• Communication: Demonstrates respect for individuals and discusses clinical issues discreetly to address knowledge deficits. Reports disciplinary issues to the Administrative Director. Facilitates information sharing related to patient care and encourages team members to voice needs, ideas, and constructive criticism.
• Treatment: Performs clinical interventions, including individual and group therapy, and assists staff in developing skills. Engages patient families, guardians, and collateral contacts in treatment and discharge planning with appropriate consent.
• Documentation: Models accurate medical record documentation and monitors for completeness among staff.
• Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI): Participates in and encourages CQI efforts. Ensures complete and timely data collection and is open to suggestions for safe experimentation to enhance services. Provides updates on quality-related issues to the Administrative Director.
• Program-Specific Competencies: Identifies areas for clinical growth and develops or assists others in developing program-specific competencies. Oversees team compliance with mandatory education hours.
• Community Engagement: Collaborates with the Administrative Director and other leaders to coordinate discharge planning with aftercare providers and participates in projects to improve patients’ community tenure post-discharge.
• Programming and Milieu Therapy: Oversees programming and milieu therapy activities (e.g., art therapy, recreational activities, community-building sessions) to ensure therapeutic engagement and structured interventions. Guides and mentors team members leading these programs.

Requirements

• Minimum three years of recent experience in the specialty area.
• Thorough knowledge of social work theory, practice, standards, and technology in the specialty area.
• Strong interpersonal communication, employee relations, patient-family relations, conflict resolution, and customer satisfaction skills.
• Ability to role model organizational values.

Qualifications

• Master of Social Work degree from an accredited graduate school of social work.
• Current NYS LCSW certification.