Social Workers: Wrapping Families in Care When They Need It Most

When a child is diagnosed with a serious illness, parents are suddenly faced with overwhelming questions. How will we pay our bills? How will we manage long hospital stays? Thanks to generous donors like you, families don’t have to face those questions alone.

Social workers offer comprehensive care for the entire family. “Providing family-centered care is a team sport, and social workers are the quarterbacks,” says Kimberly Browne, LCSW, ACM-SW, ACSW, FACHE, vice president of Patient and Family Services at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford.

A Lasting Bond

The social work team at Packard Children’s is made up of a diverse group of credentialed experts, including clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, and other mental health professionals.

One longtime team member is Ana López, LCSW. For the past seven years, Ana has been connecting kids and families with a wide range of support offered through Stanford Medicine Children’s Health and community partners.

“When I introduce myself to a family as their social worker, I explain that my job is to help them navigate their diagnosis as a whole,” López explains. “My goal is that they feel informed, supported, and on board with their treatment plan.”

She currently works with patients receiving dialysis and with families whose child needs or has received an organ transplant. The need is great: Packard Children’s is ranked No. 1 in the western United States in pediatric organ transplant volume. Ana meets with families when their child is first put on the waiting list for a new organ and continues the relationship long after they leave the hospital. She smiles fondly as she remembers patients she met as young children who have now attended prom and graduated from high school.

“It Takes a Huge Weight from Families’ Shoulders”

Visits from social workers like López can be a lifeline for parents like Elizabeth. Her daughter, Evelyn, lives with a complex genetic condition. “We never know what to expect,” Elizabeth says as she stands in her daughter’s hospital room.

Elizabeth’s face fills with warmth and gratitude as she watches López gush over Evelyn’s long braid. It is styled just like her favorite princess, Rapunzel.

When a child becomes seriously ill, an entire family’s world changes overnight. Often, hospitalization means that a parent must take time away from work, coordinate travel to and from the hospital, and balance care for other children or elders at home.

“We’re caring for a whole family,” Browne says. “Parents, siblings, and the rest of the family are impacted by a serious diagnosis, too.”

Social workers like López act as bridges to much-needed support. They are often the first to respond to families’ mental health needs, providing counseling and emotional support. To ensure holistic care, they partner with colleagues in Child Life and Creative Arts and other teams, such as the Stanford Chariot Program, which provides VR headsets and robot dogs to distract during medical procedures.

Packard Children’s is committed to ensuring that every family has access to world-class care, regardless of financial circumstances. Support from the Children’s Fund helps social workers arrange critical resources, including emergency housing and groceries for families in crisis, both through our hospital and in their home county.

“It takes a huge weight from families’ shoulders, knowing that we can help with these things,” Lopez says. “Then they can focus on their child’s treatment.”

You Make Whole-Family Healing Possible López

Donor support helps bring Packard Children’s commitment to family-centered care to life for everyone who comes through our doors.

“I always hope that I can help give families peace as they face medical complexities,” López says. “That’s one of the major things [patients] have said to me: that our work helps them navigate some of the most challenging times of their lives.”