ABSTRACT
ABOUT THE EMERGENCY ROOM Most hospital emergency rooms (ERs) across the United States offer social work services. Although no exact definition exists of the range of services offered, Bristow and Herrick (2002) explain that social workers provide psychosocial assessments, bereavement counseling and initial grief support, substance abuse assessment and referral, discharge planning, referrals for community services, emotional support, and education and advocacy for patients. Because many people use the ER as their first contact with medical care, the range of problems faced by the emergency department, especially in urban settings, necessitates the continuous presence of social work staff in the ER. In addition, government policies and regulations have mandated specific social work services for those dealing with the effects of drug abuse, family violence, and psychiatric illnesses, and many who are poor, homeless, without insurance, or lack access to other sources of medical treatment (Ponto & Berg, 1992). Many of these problems fall within the traditional description of social work service provision and naturally fall to the social worker to address in the ER setting.
