The Jefferson County Family Services Association (JCFSA), a private non-profit organization, has recently been awarded a contract from the State of Lincoln – Division of Mental Health Services to provide clinical case management and related services to patients to be discharged from the Overbridge State Psychiatric Hospital. The State intends to close this 100-year-old facility after placing the majority of its residents in supportive living arrangements in Jefferson and neighboring counties, and placing the remainder, those still determined to require in-patient hospital care, in other State psychiatric hospitals. The intent of the contract is for the JCFSA to provide necessary services to patients discharged to settings in Jefferson County. The types and kinds of services include oversight and follow through on the patient discharge plans, additional care planning and implementation as necessary, individual counseling, medication compliance monitoring and others. The type, scope, content and duration of required services are all set forth in the contract document.
The Executive Director of the JCFSA has hired you to supervise a unit of MSW level social workers to implement the contract. Each of the workers in the unit will carry caseloads consisting exclusively of discharged Overbridge Hospital patients. You have previously earned an MSW degree and have three years of clinical post-masters experience, two years of which has consisted of working with individuals afflicted with chronic and persistent mental illness. This will be your first professional social work supervisory experience.
You have participated with the Executive Director of the JCFSA in hiring the five MSW level social workers for the new unit as provided for in the State contract. The amount allocated for staff salaries and benefits in the contract, coupled with a relatively “tight” labor market for social workers in the Jefferson County area, has resulted in the hiring of individuals who, for the most part, meet only the minimum requirements for education and experience as set forth in both the State contract and the JCFSA personnel policies. The majority of the workers hired are relatively recent graduates of accredited university MSW programs and only several have any substantive experience serving individuals with chronic and persistent mental illness. The majority of the hired social workers are also new to the Jefferson County area.
Your reading of several of the preliminary discharge plans for patients completed by the Hospital has caused you some trepidation and concern. You worry as to whether or not several of the patients are indeed ready for discharge or if the State is moving too precipitously to achieve its goal of closure of the hospital. You wonder if there is a sufficiency of allied community services necessary for successful patient care such as transportation assistance, day programs, supported employment opportunities, drop in centers and others. Your new workers are clearly energetic and appear dedicated, but you are concerned as to their ability to handle professionally and emotionally the behaviors of the patients as described in the Hospital records and plans. The time has now come to determine your approach and plan for supervision.
PLEASE RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:
Identify and justify your priorities for the content of the administrative aspects of supervision you will provide to your workers (6).
Identify and justify your priorities for the content of the educational aspects of supervision you will provide your workers (6).
Identify and justify your priorities for the content of the supportive
aspects of supervision you will provide to your workers (6).
Based on the experience you may encounter in supervision of your unit to
fulfill the terms of this State contact, what information might become vital
for you to communicate to the Executive Director to support your workers
and achieve ultimate success in serving the former patients? (6).
Based on your early trepidation and concern from review of preliminary
discharge plans, what ethical issues may arise in the course of your work?
How would you deal with these? (6).
