Guest Speaker
Emily Walton, MSW, Social Worker
Discussion Topic:
The role of a social worker at MCHCS and how they serve our hospital and clinics, providing local resources to families in our community.
Hosted By:
Sarah Bradley, Marketing Manager
Transcript:
Sarah Bradley 0:00
Welcome to Sound Care on the Air podcast by Madison County Healthcare System. I’m your host, Sarah Bradley. Welcome everyone to our first episode of SoundCare. We’re very excited to have Emily Walton here today as our featured speaker. She is going to talk to us more about the social work she does in our hospital and clinics, so welcome, Emily!
Emily Walton 0:28
Thank you.
Sarah Bradley 0:29
Great to have you. Go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself and the role you have here at Madison County Healthcare System.
Emily Walton 0:35
Hi. Yeah, as you already said, my name is Emily Walton. I’m a social worker here at Madison County Healthcare System. I live here in Winter Set with my husband and our three boys. We just moved into a big old Victorian house in town and are loving renovating that. And I love to live and work and play in Madison County.
Sarah Bradley 0:56
Sounds great! So tell us a little bit about your role here as a social worker.
Emily Walton 1:00
Yes. So as a social worker here, I cover the clinic in Earlham, the Winter Set clinic, the hospital and the ER. And I assist people with any of their needs, really, from birth to death. Most often, I help people with discharge needs from the ER or after being in the hospital. But I can also help with clinic or provide resources and referrals to help people through different stages of their lives. I try to help patients understand their illness or conditions with the help of their providers and their care team and provide them with information about the resources available to them. Often this is to help cope with medical, physical, emotional, financial, financial, or social needs that arise with a new diagnosis or a new issue in their life. This can be done in a number of different ways, but I often try to help patients navigate the health care system by providing various types of supports based on the needs that they highlight themselves; emotional support while in the hospital or in the ER, organizing supports arranged outside of here or just really helping with anything in between.
Sarah Bradley 2:09
So what resources do we have available or what resources do you have specifically for adults?
Emily Walton 2:15
Yeah, for adults, it can look like a lot of different things. Most often it’s setting up home health care, palliative care, Hospice, Meals on Wheels, substance abuse treatment, therapy or counseling options, or really just connecting people to community resources like a clothing closet, food banks, support groups, or educational and preventative groups. I really like helping people transition through different phases of their lives. So oftentimes what comes to mind for something like that is when someone is needing more help than what they currently have at home or needing to move to a higher level of care, like a nursing home or an assisted living and helping navigate that process.
Sarah Bradley 3:01
And what resources do you have available for families and their kids?
Emily Walton 3:07
Helping families and children is a big passion of mine because I like to be preventative instead of reactive and the types of supports I can provide. So first and foremost, it’s making sure that all kids that we come in contact with have valid insurance or the most appropriate type of supports that way. But for the family, it’s a lot of referrals to agencies to support their specific needs. We have a lot of great local agencies like First Five Parents as Teachers, C.R.I.S.P, Safe Families for Children, and again, just school support, ensuring food security for the family, clothing for kids, financial assistance, or whatever that may be.
Sarah Bradley 3:50
Is there anything else in regards to the social work that you do that you’d like to let everybody know?
Emily Walton 3:57
I just want people that enter these doors or community members to know that I am here to support them if they know what they want and don’t know how to get there, or they feel like something is lacking in their life and they need more support than what they currently have that I can help navigate that with them. I also like to make people aware of other options or supports that they might not even know of that can just help make life easier or provide support to simplify tasks that are already doing.
Sarah Bradley 4:31
Thank you so much for joining us today. If somebody needed some resources in the community, what would be the best way to get a hold of you or to reach out to you?
Emily Walton 4:41
The best way to reach me directly is just by calling me. My number is 515-462-5113, and if I don’t answer, they can always leave me a voicemail and I’ll get back to them as soon as possible.
Sarah Bradley 4:53
Sounds great. Well, thanks again for coming on the show, and we look forward to having you again soon.
Emily Walton 4:58
Thanks for having me.