Helping Sanjay

What do you do about Sanjay?

You want to provide comprehensive care for Sanjay but want also to avoid getting between the parents and their disparate views. You can attempt to manage the situation yourself while avoiding the parental issues or can engage the professional services of a social worker to reach consensus on how to best care for this child.

Staff Capacity Building

Social workers can be hired to conduct behavioral management training for your staff to deal with difficult behavior problems, especially where behavior stems from complex family dynamics. Such training might include recognizing common problematic family dynamics, de-escalating a situation, and parent negotiation.

Patient Retention

Enhancing staff capacity to deal with difficult families helps ensure a positive parental experience in your office that can result in practice growth through parent-referrals and retention of your patients long-term.
Question 1:

As Sanjay's pediatric dentist, would you contact a social worker to assist this family?

  1. Definitely not
  2. Probably not, maybe another time
  3. Can't decide
  4. Might give it a try
  5. Absolutely