About Us

The Social Work Department is fully integrated across acute, sub acute and palliative care streams. There is a single Chief Social Worker across campuses and a site Social Work co-ordinator at St George's Health Service (SGHS). Two new Grade 4 positions were created in 2008 with a primary focus on education, training and research.

The department consists of 29 Social Workers, 1 Aboriginal Liaison Officer and 1 Administration Officer.  Social Work provides a service to all clinical areas, including:

  • Oncology, Cardiology, Cardio-Thoracics, Colorectal Surgery, Breast and Endocrine surgery, Addiction Medicine, Dermatology, Elective Surgery Access Service, Endocrine, Head and Neck, Gastroenterology, General Medical Units, Geriatric Evaluation and Management (GEM), Haematology, Infectious Diseases, Intensive Care, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Orthopaedics, Plastic Surgery, Renal Unit, Respiratory Medicine, Rehabilitation, Rheumatology, Stroke, Upper GI, Urology, Vascular, Palliative Care

Three teams have been established within social work:

Aged Care and GEM Team (AAG)

The Acute Aged and Geriatric Evaluation and Management (GEM) Social Work Team comprises 8 social workers. These workers cover general medical and sub acute units at both the Fitzroy and St George's campuses. The team specialises in aged care issues and psychosocial assessments enabling safe and timely discharges from the acute and sub acute settings.

Rehabilitation Acute Link Team (RALT)

The Rehabilitation and Acute Link Team comprises 8 social workers and covers the two rehabilitation wards at Kew and Fitzroy campus. The team has the responsibility for a number of acute units. A key strength of the team is the introduction of a new Social Work practice model to improve integrated care, efficiency and flow for patients in Stroke/Neuro rehabilitation and Orthopaedics/Muscular Skeletal rehabilitation. The team specialises in comprehensive assessments for complex patients requiring discharge planning and linkage to the community.

Cancer and Chronic Illness Team (CCI)

The Cancer and Chronic Team comprises 10 social workers. The team is responsible for specialist social work assessment, counselling and care planning with a focus on Cancer, Cardiac Care, Addiction Medicine, and Palliative Care.


The Cancer Social Workers cover tumour streams which include Breast, Colorectal, Haematology, Head and Neck, Lung, Brain and Upper GI. Tumour streaming is a diagnosis based approach. Cancer Social Workers follow patients through from diagnosis and throughout treatment, regardless of the medical or surgical unit involved.


Senior Staff

Ms Sonia Posenelli

  • Chief Social Worker

 

Ms Lisa Braddy  

  • Grade 4 Clinical Leader Aged Care and Education and Training Co-ordinator

 

Ms Carrie Lethborg   

  • Grade 4 Clinical Leader Cancer and Chronic Illness and Research Co-ordinator

 

Ms Danielle Moss  

  • Team Leader - Acute Aged and GEM Team    

 

Ms Meghan O’Brien  

  • Team Leader – Rehabilitation Acute Link Team   

 

Ms Pauley Kessel and Ms Sue Gorman  

  • Team Leaders – Cancer and Chronic Illness Team