College Hospital Cerritos (CHC) is a 187-bed, acute psychiatric hospital, serving as a center for crisis stabilization. The hospital is unique in having a wing dedicated to clients who present both developmental disabilities and mental health issues. Lindsay, ASW, one of the several case managers, has worked at College Hospital Cerritos for four years. Her time at College Hospital has been divided between the role as therapist or “counselor”
Lindsay believes her role as a social worker in integrated care is to be another witness and observer who can contribute important information that would not otherwise be revealed to other treatment team members. This also means that her specific role within the CHC integrated care setting is to be the linkage between nurses, med nurses, doctors, mental health workers, and other members of the treatment team, all while serving as the point person for patient’s discharge and aftercare plans. Additionally, she believes that familiarity with medical terms and knowledge of medication names and uses would be beneficial to have in integrated care. Working with the …show more content…
Lindsay believes this struggle is a result of the hospital not having an electronic health management and filing system and conducting all charts and notes on paper. Her experience with co-management has been somewhat limited due to her unit assignment: only one wing of the hospital has structured meetings twice a week in order to discuss patient care. Because of that set up within the integrated care model at CHC, Lindsay expressed the difficulty of informally co-managing patients through the use of nurses. In her experience, nurses serve as impromptu treatment consultants in lieu of a formal treatment team meeting due to the fact that essentially all patient info and new development are communicated and relayed through the