SOCIAL WELFARE DEPARTMENT
Brief History
Psychiatry has always been a team effort and the Social Worker is an important member of the multi-disciplinary team. Prior to 1979, skeletal social welfare services were carried out as part of Nursing care in the hospital.
Realizing the importance of social work in the management of psychiatricillness, the management of the hospital sent Miss Yemisi Agunbiade (now Mrs. Yemisi Agunbiade Sanusi) a trained psychiatric nurse on a two-year diploma programme in Social Development and Administration at the University of Lagos. On completion of the programme in 1979, she started social work practice in the hospital.
Today, the department has seven qualified social workers under the leadership of Mrs. E. M. Adenuga Assist. Director (Social Works) Current Services .
The following clinical services are rendered to the patients
Obtaining background information regarding the illness and its possible
precipitating factors in order to facilitate diagnosis.
Provision of support and practical help to the patients and their relatives such
as
Marital/Family Therapy
Home Assessment/Environmental Manipulation
Socio economic assessment of patients
Counseling (individual and group)
Supportive Psychotherapy
Contacting relatives through home Visits, letters and telephone calls
Preparing the patient for rehabilitation and reducing environmental stresses,
which might adversely affect the patients on returning home Supervision of patients and their families following their discharge from hospital to Mobilization of financial support for pauper patients.
Referrals are from doctors, nurses and other members of the treatment team.
Sometimes patients come through self-referrals.
Social work training/clerkship is offered by the department to diploma students on
field work placement from Social Development Training Institute, Shasha in Iperu
Remo, Ogun State; Masters degree Social Work students from the University of lbadan
and Lagos State University and other Social Workers from other states of the Federation
undergo in-service training in the department from time to time..
The department also participates in research programmes with other members of
the clinical team.
