Mission Statement

Social work service at Mater Dei Hospital is a holistic service to inpatients of all ages suffering from psychosocial difficulties due to their medical condition and situation.

The Service

The social work service has been introduced in the hospital wards with the overall aim of meeting the needs of the in-patients. There are social workers linked to the medical, surgical, orthopaedic, gynaecology and paediatric wards.

The social workers' role is to assess and attend to the psychosocial needs of the patients, with the aims of enhancing the quality of their stay in hospital and facilitating discharge. It is important that the social worker is involved at the early stages of the patients' admission; so that s/he will be directly involved at the planning stage of the patients' discharge and will have sufficient time to assess the needs of the patient and of his/her network. The social worker will work with the patient and or his/her network system on the interventions required. The interventions are planned and organised according to the patient's need so that the patient can be discharged on the planned date.

The understanding and cooperation of the patient, his/her network and that of the medical team facilitates better the timing of discharge.

Referrals are received from the professionals attached on the wards, as well from professionals outside the hospital, and directly from the patients and or relatives.

The social workers intervene with the following patient groups: mino