Psychiatric Social Worker Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

This post provides detailed information on the job description of a psychiatric social worker, to help you understand the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities they usually perform.

What Does a Psychiatric Social Worker Do?

A psychiatric social worker is the person who helps people with mental health issues to cope with their challenges and also helps them to obtain important social services.

Their job description covers counseling patients and their family members, and helping them obtain both medical services and financial resources.

They may also investigate job and housing placement options for recovering patients.

People in this profession are employed in many different settings, among which are; prisons, outpatient mental health centers, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, and governmental social service offices.

Some work in community-based counseling centers or in private counseling firms.

Psychiatric social workers focus mainly on patients with different mental illnesses, delusions or conditions.

The job is usually both therapeutic and diagnostic — in other words, the social worker works to know the foundation of the patient’s problem and then helps them figure out ways of coping.

The primary responsibility of most psychiatric social workers is to assist patients work and live in society with the highest degree of independence possible.

These professionals arrange special living situations in halfway houses, inpatient hospitals or assisted living facilities.

Their duties may also involve calling on potential employers in order to explain a client’s situation and finding out about job possibilities.

Most people in this position work in designated hospital wards and closely with psychiatric hospitals.

Whenever a patient is admitted with mental health concerns, social workers would be called upon to help assess the situation.

At times, all that is required could be brief counseling. The psychiatric social worker however must spend a lot of time with the patients, in order to be apprised of their situation and help them find the way forward.

Mentally ill persons in public psychiatric facilities or prisons are often assigned to a specific social worker, precisely one working for the government; and most of the work they do within these settings is rehabilitative.

Their work with patients is majorly to help them understand the gravity of social missteps or of their crimes.

Those whose family members are suffering from mental illness may seek out the voluntary assistance of a psychiatric social worker in any of these settings.

Psychiatric Social Worker Job Description Example/Sample/Template

Most psychiatric social worker job descriptions contain the following major duties, tasks, and responsibilities as shown in the example below:

• Conduct psychosocial assessment with the patient after admission into the Integrated Health Home
• Conduct family, group or individual psychotherapy as needed
• Contribute to patient development and help them maintain stable functioning
• Assist in the early detection of at risk clients
• Assist in the development of plans to prevent worsening patients’ condition
• Provide Psycho-educational Classes to promote education that either supplements or replaces individual consultative treatment
• Determine the urgency of patient’s need
• Provide treatment to children , adolescents and adults
• Render immediate cum appropriate guidance as well as therapy for members in need of clinical services or in crisis
• Provide clinical consultation in an health care environment in regards to family interactions, community resources and socio-cultural determinants
• Provide counseling, resource information, telephone assessment and referrals

Psychiatric Social Worker Job Description for Resume

A resume for seeking the job of psychiatric social worker can be prepared using the sample job description above in making the professional experience section of the resume.

Psychiatric Social Worker Requirements: Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities for Career Success

Below are important requirements expected of social workers specializing in psychiatry to succeed on their job:

• Masters degree in Social Work
• LCSW or LSW license
• At least 3+ years training/experience working in a mental health setting
• Proficiency in treating the span of developmental stages
• Previous training cum experience in group cum family therapy
• Proficiency in different treatment modalities regarding individual, family, group and child therapy
• Knowledge of behavioral therapy and concepts