Licensed Social Worker

uchicago; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

University of Chicago is seeking a Social Worker to support the Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics practice in Woodlawn and Comer Children’s Hospital. The role focuses on care coordination, family support, and linkage to EI and community resources to optimize child outcomes.

The social worker will lead intake, care coordination clinics, and inter-professional collaboration to ensure timely access to services, treatment planning, and family guidance across settings.

Responsibilities

• Develops and updates resource lists for families for therapies and EI services.
• Documents developmental care in medical records and EI notes.
• Attend all virtual and in-person EI team appointments.
• Coordinate multidisciplinary visits of the EI Medical Diagnostic Team.
• Conduct intake process for each patient prior to appointment.
• Compile all reports at end of each appointment within deadlines.
• Facilitate communications with EI service coordinators (CFC centers).
• Handle billing for EI program via Qclaims.
• Interpret, monitor, and record client progress against treatment goals.
• Complete social work assessments when consulted by pediatricians.
• Analyze potential problems in home or clinic environments.

Skills

Social work

Care coordination

Crisis intervention

Documentation

Team collaboration

Job description

Department

BSD PED - Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics

About the Department

The Section of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (DBP), within the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Chicago and at the Comer Children’s Hospital is a Center of Excellence in developmental diagnosis, biomedical management, and family supports for children with motor, communicative, sensory, developmental, genetic, neurological, learning, and behavior disorders. The Section includes 3 Developmental and Behavioral Pediatric faculty members, two childhood trauma psychologists, 3 DBP subspecialty fellows, and nursing support. The Section provides interdisciplinary assessment and biopsychosocial management practices to optimize child functioning, support families, and maximize prevention strategies across health, education, and community care systems. The Section serves as a resource for primary care practitioners, subspecialists, and community professional agencies for children at high risk for having suboptimal educational outcomes and those with complex medical and/or behavioral challenges. Their collective clinical expertise is coupled with research, educational endeavors, advocacy, and public policy activities geared to ensuring that children receive the information and supports for long-term success. The faculty’s clinical expertise, research contributions, and leadership roles within communities and professional organizations are recognized at the local, regional, national, and international levels. The clinical services provided by the Section include, but are not limited to, interdisciplinary diagnostic assessment of children enrolled in Early Intervention and diagnostic and treatment for children with a diverse array of childhood delays and disabilities (autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disorders, feeding disorders, etc.).

Job Summary

The social worker supports the Developmental and Behavioral pediatric practice in two outpatient settings: Woodlawn Social Services Center and Comer Children’s Hospital. At Woodlawn, the social worker will coordinate the Early Intervention Medical Diagnostic Assessment Team assessing children referred through Early Intervention. At Comer Children’s Hospital, the social worker will consult as needed on patients seen by the Developmental and Behavioral Pediatricians on various issues, which include but are not limited to school Individual Education Plan referral and modification, referral to social services including social security insurance, care coordination services through the Division of Specialized Care for Children, permanency planning, and obtaining services through insurance. The social worker may also refer parents for services and report cases of concern for child abuse or neglect. The social worker will also lead a care coordination clinic where they will engage with telemedicine or in-person visits with the parent(s) to support obtaining recommended services, coping with disability diagnoses, planning for transition to adult care or alternative living arrangements, or discrete behavioral concerns such as potty training. The social worker may also be involved in long-term projects that support the Section as a whole, such as developing resource lists for common referrals. The social worker may provide behavioral or emotional crisis intervention services or refer as needed for assessment elsewhere. The social worker will document care rendered and act as a resource to other Section personnel.

Responsibilities

• Develops and updates resource lists to refer families for therapies, adult mental health and counseling services, and tips for commonly encountered challenges. (e.g. applying for Social Security Insurance, requesting an Individualized Education Plan, etc.).
• Documents developmental care in records.
• Attend all virtual and/or in-person appointments of the Early Intervention Medical Diagnostic Team.
• Coordinate the multidisciplinary visits of the Early Intervention Medical Diagnostic Team.
• Conduct intake process on each patient prior to their appointment.
• Compile all the reports at the end of each appointment within expected deadlines.
• Facilitate any communications with service coordinators at the Child and Family Connections (CFC) centers pertaining to Early Intervention (EI), requesting all necessary paperwork.
• Handle billing for all patients for EI program through Qclaims.
• In individual care coordination clinic visits, interprets, monitors, and record client progress according to measurable goals described in treatment and care plan.
• Completes a social work assessment when consulted by a Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician in the Section. The majority of consultations will be for Comer patients.
• Analyzes potential problems in home or clinic environments.
• Interprets, monitors, and record client progress according to measurable goals described in treatment and c