The State Hospital Service Social Work

The Social Work Service is provided by South Lanarkshire Council via Service Level Agreement with the State Hospitals Board for Scotland which specifies the core functions of the service. Partnership working with South Lanarkshire Council is well established and provides a social work services for patients and their families in addition to liaising with patients’ designated Mental Health Officers (MHOs) across the country.

Social Workers are embedded within multi-disciplinary teams and aim to contribute to the overall assessment, care planning and treatment plans for individual patients throughout their stay at the hospital and in preparation for their transfer and discharge via the Care Program Approach (CPA). The service provides regular reports to the Life Prisoner Tribunal and Parole Board in relation to transferred prisoners.

The Social Work Service works with families and carers to provide information, advice and support including, where appropriate, referral to the relevant local authority. Social Workers routinely engage with Mental Health Officers (MHOs) across Scotland and team members assume the role of MHO for patients transferred from Northern Ireland or from other locations outwith Scotland.

The Social Work Service provides Child and Adult Protection Services within the hospital and links with external partners as appropriate to support this work. Training is delivered by the service to multi-disciplinary colleagues in relation to these areas. The service is represented at local and national Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangement (MAPPA) groups and also provides Appropriate Adult services to the patients as required.

There are no charges to the service users, their families or carers for the Social Work Service.