Social Work Services
High Country Hospice Social Workers provide patients and their families psychological, emotional and social assistance. In addition, they are able to connect patients and families with community financial resources. During the admission process, the social worker will ask, among other things:

• About the patient's family and support network;
• What the patient's experience has been like since recieving his/her diagnosis;
• If additional support would be helpful.

Hospice focuses on quality of life and comfort, and it's the social worker's goal to make sure both are achieved. Social workers provide:

• Home visits on a monthly basis, and more often, if needed;
• Phone calls to check in on the patient/family;
• Community contacts to assist the patient/family with needed resources;
• Advocacy, when needed, for specific concerns/needs of the patient/family;
• Grief counseling prior to the patient's death and linking the family with the Bereavement Coordinator for ongoing grief support after the patients death;
• Assistance with applications for financial support, Health Care Power of Attorney, or other paperwork needed to improve the patient's quality of life;
• Education about the dying process and what to expect;
• Help to the family when they make funeral arrangements;
• Comfort, support, encouragement.

We recognize that all patients and families are different. We provide individualized care based on the specific needs of the patient, and encourage patients/families to call us whenever a need arises that we might address.

Alleghany: 336.372.8018
Ashe: 336.246.6443
Watauga: 828.265.3926

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