Social Worker

A social worker is a professional who helps individuals, families, and communities improve their well-being and cope with challenges in their daily lives. They provide support, advocacy, and resources to those facing issues such as poverty, abuse, mental health problems, and social injustice. Social workers operate in various settings, including hospitals, schools, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Their work often involves counseling, crisis intervention, and connecting people with essential services to enhance their quality of life.

Social workers (SW) are part of multidisciplinary teams for many surgical disciplines.

Their role in deep brain stimulation (DBS) presurgical evaluations has not been defined.

The goal was to characterize the role of SWs in a multidisciplinary DBS presurgical evaluation team and to construct a screening tool to identify patients who could benefit from a preoperative SW consultation.

A retrospective chart review was conducted on 100 consecutive patients.

Ninety-seven subjects met with the SW. The median age was 68 years; 52% were female. Eight roles for the DBS SW were identified. The SW recommended follow-up for two subjects, and four additional subjects contacted the SW subsequently.

This study revealed how SWs could be integrated into DBS presurgical evaluations. Because most patients do not have specific SW needs, the mnemonic DBS-FACTS (finances, advance care planning, caregivers, transportation, and suicide risk) may identify patients who could benefit from SW consultation ¹⁾