This department will support social workers for the long term and align our organization with the essential work social workers do every day.
Joanne M. Conroy, MDDartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) recently launched a Department of Social Work to serve as a professional home for this important group of clinicians. Based in Lebanon, the department will support social work identity, training, development and best practices across the Dartmouth Health system.
“Social workers play a critical role in patient care, access and transitions across settings,” said Dartmouth Health CEO and president Joanne M. Conroy, MD. “Their work spans areas from care management to mental health, pediatrics and other clinical settings. This department will support social workers for the long term and align our organization with the essential work social workers do every day. This supports Dartmouth Health’s goals to strengthen integrated care and improve coordination across the care continuum.”
Social workers, stakeholders and leaders from across DHMC and Clinics worked together on the creation of the department to ensure it reflected the voices and experiences of the social workers caring for patients daily. Michele A. Blanchard, MSW, care management manager at DHMC, and Lucy J.R. Pilcher, MSW, LICSW, behavioral health clinician manager at DHMC, led the charge to create the department.
“The Department of Social Work will provide enhanced career development pathways, expand educational opportunities, and strengthen support for Dartmouth Health’s social workers, who fulfill a vital role in caring for our most vulnerable patients,” said Pilcher and Blanchard. “This department will elevate and unify the social work profession within our organization, reinforcing the essential contributions social workers make as key members of interdisciplinary teams.”
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.