Clinical Social Worker, Program Specialist

				Overview:

As a member of the multidisciplinary oncology team, and under moderate supervision, the Clinical Social Worker, LCSW Program Specialist,  for the Universal Distress Screening Program independently provides patient and family centered care through clinical psychosocial assessment and intervention, including crisis response, individual, couples, family, and group interventions, and short-term bereavement support. The Clinical Social Worker, LCSW Program Specialist is responsible to innovate, develop, and implement projects, conferences, trainings, educational resources, groups, or other forums that address goals and expectations of the program stakeholders. The Clinical Social Worker, Program Specialist develops and implements project plans to address patient-level and systems-level psychosocial care gaps and has a leadership role in program meetings with commitment to continuous quality improvement. The Clinical Social Worker, LCSW Program Specialist also leads ongoing programmatic evaluation and refinement.

This is an excellent position for a social worker with a background in program implementation and experience in working with adults with serious illness. This role sits within the Division of Social Work at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the Department of Supportive Oncology. This role is an exciting opportunity to provide ambulatory clinical oncology social work services and lead the Institute-wide Universal Distress Screening Program (ambulatory and future inpatient settings) in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary screening team. The Screening Specialist is responsible for distress screening practice and operations, clinical integration, patient educational materials, referral and outreach workflows, data management, research collaboration, and program development to improve the patient and family experience throughout the process of cancer care. The social worker will provide in-person and telehealth services to patients and families (i.e., phone/Zoom video). Modalities include individual, family, and group work. Candidate must be able to thrive in a fast paced, complex, academic medical environment where the social worker is a key, valued member of the multidisciplinary medical team.

This is a full-time, 40 hour per week position. As a hybrid role the schedule is 2 days on-site coverage and 3 days remote at the DFCI Chestnut Hill location. DFCI guidelines state that employees must reside in New England: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, or Vermont.

If interested in this opportunity, please submit a resume and a cover letter detailing your experience, qualifications, and skills for this position.

Located in Boston and the surrounding communities, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a leader in life changing breakthroughs in cancer research and patient care. We are united in our mission of conquering cancer, HIV/AIDS and related diseases. We strive to create an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment where we provide compassionate and comprehensive care to patients of all backgrounds, and design programs to promote public health particularly among high-risk and underserved populations. We conduct groundbreaking research that advances treatment, we educate tomorrow's physician/researchers, and we work with amazing partners, including other Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospitals.

Responsibilities:

* Provides biopsychosocial assessment and intervention, crisis intervention, coordination of psychosocial services, and consultation, to reduce cancer-related distress and improve quality of life for patients, families and caregivers across the trajectory of cancer care; this includes those patients seen for screening for high risk of developing cancer and/or a diagnosis of cancer through to end of life and/or survivorship in collaboration with community mental health partners.
* Assesses adaptation of families and caregivers to patient's illness and ensures maximum participation of patients/families/caregivers in the continuum of care process.  
* Provides clinical interventions that are focused on cancer-related distress, are evidence based, goal oriented, strengths based, and short-term and episodic in nature to ensure patient equity and accessibility to social work interventions; modalities include individual, family, and group work. 
* Identifies and addresses high-risk psychosocial factors as well as psychosocial strengths of patients/families/caregivers that impact health status, coping and adjustment (e.g., suicidal, or homicidal risk, domestic violence, disabled, child or elder abuse and neglect, physical, developmental, or intellectual disabilities, serious mental health conditions, etc.)  
* Responsible for facilitating complex serious illness and goals of care conversations to ensure shared treatment decision-making and effective patient-physician/health care team communication. 
* Responsible for identifying and communicating systemic inequities, their impact on patients, families, caregivers, and the community at large. and providing recommendations for systemic change. 
* Responsible for demonstrating commitment to diversity and equity efforts, including advocacy and self-education to advance knowledge base of the needs and concerns of underserved and marginalized populations. 
* Communicates clinical assessment and recommendations and provides consultation and support to interdisciplinary health care team.
* Initiates collaboration with interdisciplinary team to manage psychosocial barriers that limit patients/families'/caregivers' ability to access and/or engage in recommended medical care. 
* Provides education/consultation regarding impact of cancer on patients and families/caregivers to community, and provides consultation, education, and program development (e.g., support groups, psychoeducational forums, etc.) within the disease-based or service-based team and in collaboration with the interdisciplinary team.
* Co-facilitates evidence-based patient and/or family and/or caregiver support programs or groups. 
* Provides in-person and/or telehealth services to patients and families/caregivers; method of communication (i.e., in person/phone/Zoom video) is based on clinical assessment.
* Provides clinical coverage in other social workers' absence(s).  

Program Specialist: In collaboration with the Programmatic Manager: 

* Develops and implements program components (ex: projects, conferences, trainings, educational resources, groups, or other forums) that address goals and expectations of the program stakeholders.
* Engages interdisciplinary stakeholders in program planning and development using the values, benefits, outcomes model of engagement.
* Engages in ongoing programmatic evaluation and continuous quality improvement with internal and external participants and stakeholders. 
* Conducts exploratory reviews, benchmarking with peer institutions to support program development and implementation.
* Develops project plans that includes micro-, mezzo-, and macro-level interventions.
* Addresses and implements response to health care disparities in the program 
* Facilitates ongoing and episodic meetings with stakeholders, relevant clinical staff, and/or donors to ensure and sustain continuous quality improvement.
* Participates in group supervision with Program Specialist Social Work Manager and Social Work Division program specialist social workers for program updates, collaborative brainstorming, and skill development. 
* Prepares and/or contributes to endeavors such as contributing to articles for peer-reviewed journals or contributing to or participating in presentations for professional forums, and/or internal and external stakeholders.
* Utilizes a concurrent program development model (implementing program components in small iterations)
* Ensures program is feasible, sustainable, replicable, and functionally integrated in disease center or institutional inf
			

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Dana-Farber Cancer Institute