Residence Requirements:

RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS: THERE ARE NO RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATION IN THIS EXAMINATION. There are two vacancy at the Erie County Medical Center (ECMC).

Examples of Duties:

A Social Work Assistant-Long Term Care assists in providing professional social work services to patients and their families in a long-term health care facility;

Interviews patients and their relatives to obtain social history relevant to medical problems and planning;

Arranges for post discharge care facilities and assists patients and families in handling and accepting nursing home placement;

Assists patients in securing appliances required through agencies and rentals;

Compiles medical-social history summarizations and statistical reports related to social work activity;

Confers with hospital personnel, as necessary, on behalf of patients;

Arranges for transportation;

Collects and revises information on community health and welfare resources.

Qualifications:

Candidates must meet one of the following requirements on or before the date of the written test:

Graduation from a regionally accredited or New York State registered college or university with a Bachelor's Degree in Social Work or related field, and one year of experience in a health care setting in social work or related field.

Notes:

NOTES: 1. Any selected candidates are subject to approval of credentials by the New York State Health Department prior to employment. 2. Verifiable part-time and/or volunteer experience will be pro-rated toward meeting the experience requirements. 3. Your degree and/or col1ege credit must have been awarded by a regionally accredited college or university or one recognized by the New York State Education Department as following acceptable educational practices. A grade of "D" or better is necessary for a course to be credited as successfully completed. If your degree and/or college credit was awarded by an educational institution outside of the United States and its territories, you must provide independent verification of equivalency. You can write to this Department for a list of acceptable companies providing this service; you must pay the required evaluation fee.

The New York State Department of Civil Service has not prepared a test guide for this examination. However, candidates may find information in the publication "How to take a written test" helpful in preparing for this test. This publication is available on line at: www.cs.ny.gov/testing/localtestguides.cfm

Subjects of Examination:

A written test designed to evaluate knowledge, skills and /or abilities in the following areas:

1. Applying Information: These questions test for the ability to apply simple information. You will be given a Resource Directory that describes community agencies, their purposes and the type of client each serves. Questions describe clients with a variety of problems and situations. You must determine the appropriate referral for clients based on the services which each agency provides.

2. Interviewing: These questions test for knowledge of the principles and practices employed in obtaining information from individuals through structured conversations. These questions require you to apply the principles, practices, and techniques of effective interviewing to hypothetical interviewing situations. Included are questions that present a problem arising from an interviewing situation, and you must choose the most appropriate course of action to take.

3. Preparing Written Material: These questions test for the ability to present information clearly and accurately, and to organize paragraphs logically and comprehensibly. For some questions, you will be given information in two or three sentences followed by four restatements of the information. You must then choose the best version. For other questions, you will be given paragraphs with their sentences out of order. You must then choose, from four suggestions, the best order for the sentences.

4. Working With People In Human Services Situations: These questions test for a knowledge of general techniques used to deal with common client behaviors such as fear, hostility, shyness, resistance, defensiveness, withdrawal, anxiety and confusion.

**IMPORTANT APPLICATION FEE - READ CAREFULLY**

A $20.00 filing fee is required for this exam. The required fee must accompany your application. Send or bring check or money order made payable to Erie County Personnel Department and write the examination number(s) on your check or money order. Do not send or bring cash, as the County cannot be responsible for cash payment. As no refund will be made, you are urged to compare your qualifications carefully with the requirements for admission and file only for those examinations for which you are clearly qualified.