Social Work

At the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, we believe that beyond quality medical care, successful health care relies on recognizing the impact an illness can have on your family, communicating effectively with your health care team, and taking advantage of available services. Our multi-disciplinary team helps you with all of this — and more.

How We Can Help

Social workers provide compassionate, professional, and culturally-sensitive assistance to help children and families cope with illness, injury, and disability. We help you deal with your child’s course of care and help defuse your family’s stress as much as possible. It’s our job to anticipate your every need and provide your family with emotional support, counseling, and resource assistance during your stay — and beyond.

Services We Provide

In addition to offering emotional support, our social workers can help coordinate the health care your child receives to make it as easy as possible for you. We can also help facilitate improvements your child might need at school or at home, solve and cope with problems in their everyday lives, and generally make things easier and less scary or overwhelming — especially for families of kids with chronic and/or serious illnesses.

Case Management

Providing ongoing needs assessment, service coordination, information and referrals, consultation regarding custody and consent issues, and transition to adult care for kids with chronic conditions and complex illnesses.

Discharge Planning

Coordinating your child’s home health care and home equipment needs, providing referrals/placement in residential facilities, coordinating ambulance transportation and Medicaid transportation providers, referrals to and coordination with community services, and assisting with school services.

Crisis Intervention

Helping your family cope with trauma, death, or a life-threatening/serious diagnosis by orienting you with the hospital and our services, mobilizing your support system, and providing end-of-life assistance. In cases of child abuse or domestic violence, we can help coordinate safe discharge with outside agencies.

Counseling & Support

Community Liaison Services

Helping your family secure emergency assistance, identify state and federal programs, and access nonprofit services as needed.

Community Advocacy

Coordinating services with community agencies, schools, and insurance companies, serving as board members of local
non-profit organizations, and impacting government policies and public awareness about pediatric health care issues. Our social workers also inform children and families of their health care rights and responsibilities.

Support Groups

Establishing and assisting onsite support groups for parents
and youth.

Our Social Work Team

Our social workers will do whatever it takes to improve the emotional well-being of your child and your family. We’re specially trained to assess the overall psychosocial functioning of patients and families — and we’re assigned to specific areas of medicine and specific children, so we’re familiar with what you’re going through.