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 the state’s largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital and multiple locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory and specialty services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.