Social Services Director

Role overview

The Social Services Director supports residents and their families by coordinating social, emotional, and practical services that promote the best possible level of independence, comfort, and wellbeing. The role calls for someone who can work calmly under pressure, maintain confidentiality, stay organized, plan effectively, document accurately, and communicate clearly with residents, families, and the care team.

What you will do

• Work with residents and their families to identify options, set goals, and decide on an appropriate plan of action.
• Support residents in maintaining the highest realistic level of self-care, independence, and overall wellbeing.
• Deliver medically related social services that help preserve or improve each resident’s physical, mental, and psychosocial health.
• Assess social and family background, emotional state, and psychological needs to determine social service needs and contribute to care planning.
• Offer emotional support to residents and families, including help with coping challenges linked to disability, health concerns, grief, and loss of function or life.
• Help residents make health care decisions.
• Assist with personal shopping needs.
• Track and inventory resident belongings, and help respond when items are missing, lost, or stolen.
• Connect residents with community resources, social service agencies, and health or welfare organizations as needed.
• Help obtain prosthetics and assistive equipment.
• Build cooperative working relationships with internal departments and outside agencies to ensure resident needs are met.
• Maintain documentation related to resident social service status.
• Support scheduling of outpatient appointments and on-site ancillary services such as optometry, podiatry, dentistry, and psychiatric care.
• Contribute to discharge planning with agencies, organizations, and individuals, including referrals, equipment, and service coordination as part of the interdisciplinary team.
• Provide staff training and in-service education when requested.
• Provide counseling to residents and family members.

Qualifications

A bachelor’s degree in Social Work or Human Services is required, along with 2 years of supervised social work experience in a health care setting working directly with individuals. A Master of Social Work is preferred.

Skills and work style

This position benefits from strong listening skills, verbal communication, objective judgment, discretion, persistence, planning ability, reporting accuracy, and the ability to handle sensitive family and resident situations with professionalism.

Language, reasoning, and technical expectations

The role requires the ability to read technical procedures and policy manuals, present information clearly, and respond to questions from managers and employees. You should also be able to apply basic math concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios, and proportions, and solve practical problems by interpreting written, spoken, diagram-based, or scheduled instructions. Knowledge and experience with PCC is preferred.

Physical and work environment

This job involves frequent standing or walking, frequent reaching, pushing, and pulling, as well as frequent talking and hearing. Sitting happens occasionally. Lifting up to 25 pounds is required frequently. Climbing, balancing, stooping, kneeling, and crouching are occasional parts of the work. The environment is generally quiet to moderately noisy, and reasonable accommodations may be made for qualified individuals with disabilities.

Additional information

Management may assign or reassign duties at any time. The responsibilities listed here describe the general nature and level of work expected, but they are not a complete list and may change with reasonable accommodation or other business needs. The employer is committed to equal opportunity and considers all qualified applicants without discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected status.