Traditionally, medical social workers have assisted families while their child is in the hospital or clinic. But increasingly for Johns Hopkins Children’s Center social workers, the focus has been on the patient’s and family’s life at home and in the community to improve their access to care.

“Just as we train residents in the Harriet Lane Clinic to know the family outside of their medical status, our social workers here know that within that knowledge lie solutions to barriers to care,” says Paula Heneberry, director of social work. “It’s a real value shift, bringing the social worker’s interests in family life in the community in a way that everyone understands.”

Following this proactive approach and employing tools like motivational empathy, Harriet Lane Clinic social worker LaToya Mobley makes as many as five contacts each month with a patient and family to build long-term rapport to identify and break downs barriers related to finances, housing, insurance, transportation and the urban environment, among other issues.   

“If I’m hungry and cold, if I don’t have boots for winter, then I’m not worried about my asthma or anything that comes after my basic needs,” says Mobley. “Our job is to jump into the family experience, to understand they have a life outside of their doctors’ appointments and the Emergency Department.”

She adds that she’s not shy about asking families lots of questions to help move them in the direction they want to go: “You can’t just hand people a bunch of resources — you have to meet your patients and families where they are to understand they have challenges outside of their health.”

Dawn Warfield, social worker in the pediatric cardiology clinic, agrees with this more personalized approach. For social workers, she says, that means creating an open and honest dialogue with families, anticipating their needs, and capitalizing on their strengths and resources.

“You have to get an understanding of the family, their values, what they perceive as their challenges, because each family is unique,” says Warfield. “Don’t make assumptions — people will share their experiences if they think you care.”