We assist patients in making a smooth transition from the hospital back to the community with emphasis on continuity of care and efficient use of hospital and community resources. This may include referrals to community hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, shelter homes, day care centres, senior activity centres, home help and befriending services.

Therapy & Counselling

MSWs are extensively involved in counselling - managing patients’ issues arising from coping with illness, illness anxiety, grief and loss, bereavement, single motherhood and other emotional distress. In 2002, our therapy-trained MSWs introduced marital and family therapy as complements to our existing patient counselling services.

Suicide Assessment & Intervention

Each year our department attends to more than 300 patients for suicide attempts. Apart from the attempted suicide cases, we also assess patients with suicide ideation. Our special team of MSWs who are trained in LivingWorks (Calgary, Canada), a suicide intervention model, supports these patients.

Interpersonal Violence Intervention

There is also a team of MSWs offering intervention and support for victims of family violence, including domestic violence, child abuse and elder abuse. Victims of sexual assault are also assisted by MSWs offering sensitive support and empowering services with the aim of transforming sexual assault victims to survivors.

Psychological Trauma Support

With SGH having the only Burns Centre in South-East Asia, our department plays a critical role in the provision of psychological trauma support for burns victims. Additionally we provide bereavement support at the Emergency Department to the loved ones of victims of sudden or traumatic death situations, such as road traffic accidents and drowning. MSWs trained as Emergency Behaviour Officers (EBO) provide psychological first aid and Critical Incident Stress Debriefing for critical incidents or national disaster situations.

Financial Assistance

Medical cost and treatment affordability are common concerns among many patients. As part of helping patients cope with the impact of their illness, financial assistance is offered to help eligible, needy patients. Apart from official assistance schemes such as Medifund, we also link patients with external resources to look into their other areas of financial need.

Home Visits

As part of post-discharge services, we conduct home visits to establish patients’ coping capacity in their home environment, and link them with other community resources if necessary. Home visits also allow us to gain a better understanding of the patients’ family dynamics and financial situation, facilitating us in our assessment and intervention.

Support Groups

Dealing with the onset of a chronic illness is never an easy experience. As part of increasing patients’ coping capacity, MSWs facilitate support groups where patients can share their concerns in a supportive environment. Some of these include the Amputee and Diabetes Support Groups.

Staff Counselling

Counselling services are offered in our outreach to hospital employees who may be affected by personal, family and workplace problems. Employees requesting such services are either self-referred, or referred by their colleagues or supervisors. Our senior MSWs attend to such referrals and as in all counselling situations, information received during such sessions is treated with confidentiality.

Teaching

Our role in teaching extends to Social Work undergraduate interns of National University of Singapore (NUS) as well as to professional social workers seeking training experience in medical social work. We are actively involved in conducting counselling and social work training and workshops for healthcare as well as social work professionals. Some examples include Nephrology Social Work, Basic Counselling Skills, Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), Healthcare Response to Domestic Violence and Stress Management Workshop.

Research

Our involvement in research is relatively recent and we aim to cultivate a research-oriented practice. Past and current areas of research interests include domestic violence, aspects of suicide, caregiver stress, quality of life, renal social work and staff psychological support.