9
Social Service Added to Health Team
HOSPITAL—COMMUNITY LIAISON—Mrs. Jean Rogers, newly named social
worker at the Medical Center, talks with a young patient on Howland ward, (photo
by Bin Boyarsky)
Six-year-old David left the hospital
one Saturday clutching his mother's sleeve
in one hand and the diet and medication
instructions his doctors gave him to con
trol his recently diagnosed diabetes in the
other.
Two weeks later David was back in the
hospital again.
What happened?
There are nine children in David's
family and his mother, who works all
day, found it difficult to keep up with
David's food restrictions and insulin in
jections. Try as she might, his mother
could not give David the special attention
he needed, and David got sick again.
The Medical Center has added a new
member to its pediatric health care team
to try to prevent situations like David's.
She is Mrs. Jean Rogers and her job is
pediatric social service. Her purpose, said
Dr. Samuel Katz, chairman of the Depart
ment of Pediatrics, is to relate the goals
health management set up at the hospital
to the patient's family and community
situation.
In David's case, Mrs. Rogers could
have helped the medical staff gain an
understanding of what factors were oper
ating in the home and whether or not ad
justments would have to be made in order
for the medical plan to work. Then a-
rrangements might have been made with
various organizations in David's commun
ity so that the family could get the help it
needed.
Financial aid might have been arranged
to enable David's mother to give up her
job or cut down her hours away from
home. Services of a public health nurse
in the community might have been en
listed to supervise David's injections or to
instruct an older sister, or David himself,
to give them. Homemaker services might
also have been sought to help David's
mother with meal planning and time
scheduling to fit her son's medical re
quirements into the family scheme of
things.
"After all," Dr. Katz explained, "even
though the medical program we set up for
a child may look workable while he's
here, it doesn't do him any good if his
home life prevents it from being carried
out.
Mrs. Rogers sees her role as helping
patients and their parents with any finan
cial, educational, emotional or vocational
problems or combinations of these that
might have an effect on the patient's care.
In the course of a day's work, she
might make suggestions to the parents of
a child who refuses to take his medicine,
spend some time cheering up a youngster
whose parents are not able to visit, or
find a long-term care facility for a child
who cannot be treated at home after he
leaves the hospital.
Working out agreements with public
health, extended care, welfare and related
agencies is also a large part of Mrs.
Rogers' job. She must know where to re
fer a patient when an unusual problem a-
rises.
In addition to aiding patients and their
families, Mrs. Rogers will be teaching
other members of the p>ediatrics staff at
Duke about medical social work.
"Most of the pediatric residents will be
going into private practice where they
will not have the special skills of a social
worker," Mrs. Rogers said, "so I feel it is
important to teach them the fundament-
tals that can be useful with their own
patients."
She added that these future practition
ers will need to be able to understand the
patient in his environment and to be able
to utilize community resources when
necessary.
Katz said that the department plans to
add several more social workers to the
staff as soon as the funds become avail
able.
Mrs. Rogers comes to Duke from a
position as a medical social worker at
Newington Children's Hospital in New
ington, Conn. She had previously been a
social worker dealing with abused and
neglected children and unmarried teen
age mothers in Hartford, Conn.
A native of Fayetteville, Mrs. Rogers
earned her B. A. degree in psychology
and social science from Spelman College
in Atlanta and her master's in social
work from the University of Connecticut
School of Social Work. She is a member
of the National Association of Social
Workers and the Academy of Certified
Social Workers.
Her husband, Randal, is a law student
at North Carolina Central University.