Sarah Distefano
Cypress,TX
Summary
Compassionate and dedicated social work professional with extensive experience supporting traumatized children and adults in clinical settings. Skilled in developing and implementing tailored intervention plans to address specific needs. Strong focus on team collaboration and achieving impactful outcomes, adaptable to evolving circumstances. Experience in implementing care plans that address both medical and psychosocial needs.
Overview
15
15
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Therapist
Muro Mental Health, PLLC
04.2024 - Current
- Maintained detailed case notes and documentation, ensuring effective tracking of progress and continuity of care across providers.
- Built strong rapport with clients, fostering trust and open communication for effective therapy sessions.
- Established clear boundaries with clients, maintaining ethical practice standards while preserving the therapeutic relationship.
- Enhanced client well-being through personalized treatment plans tailored to individual needs and goals.
- Assessed clients' mental health needs, developed treatment plans and monitored progress.
- Counseled individuals, groups, and families to bring awareness of problems, deal with crisis situations and develop action plans.
Social Worker
The Woman's Hospital of Texas
01.2023 - 07.2024
- Interviewed clients, families, or groups to assess situations, limitations and issues and implement services to address needs.
- Collaborated with multidisciplinary teams to ensure appropriate care coordination and resource allocation for clients.
- Educated families on available community resources, connecting them with essential services such as housing assistance, financial aid, or healthcare providers.
- Supported clients and families with empathy and compassion during difficult times.
- De-escalated stressful situations through individual and family crisis interventions.
- Maintained accurate case documentation, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and facilitating informed decision-making by team members.
- Improved client well-being by conducting comprehensive assessments and developing tailored intervention plans.
FORENSIC EVALUATION CLINICIAN
THE CHILDREN'S ASSESSMENT CENTER
05.2017 - 01.2023
- Conducts systematic evaluations of children at the request of legal authorities for the explicit purpose of gathering forensically sound information, as part of child sexual abuse investigations to assist decision-making or legal proceedings.
- Gathers information regarding social, developmental, emotional, and behavioral functioning as well as abuse-related information and establishes foundation for healing process.
- Collaborates with multi-disciplinary investigative team, including law enforcement, medical personnel, CPS, County and District Attorney's Offices to provide comprehensive findings and service recommendations.
- Attends professional trainings, consultations, and weekly clinical supervision to ensure best practice.
- Documents sessions and provides written reports, court testimony, and community trainings.
- Conduct forensic interviews of children and adolescents of alleged abuse as needed.
WEEKEND EMERGENCY CENTER SOCIAL WORKER (PART TIME)
TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
08.2018 - 10.2019
- Facilitates patients/families use of community resources
- Actively participates in providers' conferences to identify and respond to the psychosocial needs of the patients/families and to provide psychosocial information pertinent to formulating care plans
- Delivers appropriate, focused patient/family counseling in accordance with the patient's/family's right to self-determination and principles of confidentiality
- Utilizes quality improvement process to identify improvement opportunities and establish/assess/evaluate programs and services and their outcomes
- Educates self by reading professional literature and attending staff development and continuing education program as evidenced by attendance and CEU records
- Provides psychosocial screenings/assessments by interviewing patients and/or their families for information about the patients' social, emotional/psychological, developmental/educational/vocational, environmental, financial and health situations, within authorization periods, as required for patient care and/or treatment/transitional planning
- Develops, implements and/or updates comprehensive pediatric social work care plans
FORENSIC INTERVIEWER
THE CHILDREN'S ASSESSMENT CENTER
03.2016 - 05.2017
- Conduct forensic interviews of children and adolescents of alleged abuse
- Facilitate pre/post interview multidisciplinary case staffing
- Provide expert testimony in civil and criminal court as requested
- Participate in case reviews and present cases when requested
- Collect and enter data into the case tracking system in a timely manner
- Participate in supervision, peer review, professional development and on-going training activities to ensure best practice.
- Act as a community liaison and representative of the agency.
- Conduct professional and community in-service trainings about interviewing and/or the dynamics of child abuse
HUMAN SERVICES SPECIALIST VII
DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES
12.2015 - 03.2016
- Provide complex and specialized social work consultation and comprehensive case management services to families who receive services or are seeking services from the CSHCN-SP, SSI, NBS, NBHS, CLPPP, CHIP, CPS/Foster Care and CPW programs.
- Conduct home visits for comprehensive assessment of home environment and needs.
- Following program guidelines, provide comprehensive case management services including the Intake, Family Needs Assessment, Service Plan, and Follow-up services.
- Assist families with the eligibility determination process for CSHCN-SP.
- Provide information and referral services, linkage to community resources, family supports, advocacy, and service coordination.
- Maintain documentation of work activities with record documentation, monthly reports, travel reports, case summaries and correspondence.
- Conduct comprehensive assessments to determine eligibility and need for PCS/PDN.
- Document identified needs and forwards documentation for authorization of personal care services.
- Conduct reassessments for PCS/PDN as required or as necessary according to family needs. Enters family encounter information into an online database.
CLINICAL DIRECTOR
A WORLD FOR CHILDREN
07.2014 - 12.2015
- Oversee treatment plans, psychiatric monitoring, therapeutic services for all children in Houston, San Antonio and Victoria to ensure all interventions are in compliance with Minimum Standards.
- Create and implement trainings for foster families to ensure that they have current information on how to appropriately and therapeutically handle traumatized children.
- Crisis intervention with families and foster children in order to prevent placement disruption.
- Conduct debriefings and additional trainings if there is a placement disruption and evaluate appropriate future placements to promote successful outcomes.
- Review incoming placement documentation and staff with child placement staff in order to ensure that a child is placed with a family trained and able to meet their individual needs.
- Create and manage psychiatric, doctor staffing, and psychological schedules with outside providers to ensure that each child is receiving appropriate interventions in a timely manner.
- Create monthly training calendars for working and licensed foster families.
- Participate in professional training committee to redesign trainings for the agency.
SOCIAL WORKER
HEALTHBRIDGE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
08.2013 - 07.2014
- Performs social service screening, psychosocial assessment and discharge planning assessment on each patient admitted or readmitted to the hospital within 72 hours.
- Develops plan of care for social services as part of the psychosocial assessment and incorporates the plan into the interdisciplinary care plan.
- Identifies patients and family members who need counseling.
- Provides resources and referrals for outside services once the patient discharges.
- Coordinates with the case manager and physician to facilitate family conferences upon admission and for discharge planning as needed.
- Documents progress in medical record.
- Assists team in development of the appropriate level of care needed for the patient upon discharge.
- Communicate discharge barriers to the team to ensure early intervention towards CPS referrals.
- Initiate early intervention to CPS should discharge barriers be too significant to resolve.
- Provide school registration packets to all patients/families and serve as the liaison between the school district and parent.
- Provide Trauma Informed Care Training to direct care staff quarterly.
- Update/ Maintain contractual obligations with DFPS.
SOCIAL SERVICE WORKER
BAIR FOUNDATION
04.2012 - 01.2013
- Carried average of 15-30 children on caseload, depending on service level.
- Responsible for monitoring the progress of foster children in home, school, and community settings.
- Applied advanced social services knowledge to develop individualized service plan (ISP) to establish the appropriate services to be provided for each child in placement and to assure compliance with state regulations.
- Responsible for making monthly home visits to foster homes to ensure children and foster parents had the needed services and resources at any given time and to ensure safety of the children.
- Determined appropriate diagnostic testing and evaluation to ensure that all services specified in each program description are completed.
- Made referrals to outside entities to provide services to foster children and foster parents.
- Applied social work assessment skills to individually evaluate foster homes and certify eligibility to provide foster/adoptive care.
CPS SPECIALIST II
TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY AND PROTECTIVE SERVICES
06.2010 - 02.2012
- Carried an average caseload of 35-40 children
- Responsible for providing child protective services to children in substitute care
- Coordinated services with representatives from various organizations to promote better outcomes for clients
- Attended regular court hearings to update the court on how the parents and children were progressing in their respective services on a regular basis
- Responsible for maintaining individual and family plans in accordance with the families' needs and court ordered services
- Made referrals to outside entities for parents and children depending on their needs
- Efficiently maintained complex case files for each family
- Experience in dealing with emotionally disturbed and behaviorally challenged children
- Provided parenting education and intervention to families of children in custody
Education
Master of Social Work -
Stephen F. Austin State University
Nacogdoches, TX05.2010
Bachelor of Social Work -
Stephen F. Austin State University
Nacogdoches, TX12.2008
Skills
- Client advocacy
- Case management
- Multidisciplinary team collaboration
- Crisis intervention
- Compassionate
- Child welfare expertise
- Community resources
Certification
- Licensed Clinical Social Worker, State of Texas
- License # 57429, Expiration: April 30, 2026
Timeline
Therapist
Muro Mental Health, PLLC
04.2024 - Current
Social Worker
The Woman's Hospital of Texas
01.2023 - 07.2024
WEEKEND EMERGENCY CENTER SOCIAL WORKER (PART TIME)
TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
08.2018 - 10.2019
FORENSIC EVALUATION CLINICIAN
THE CHILDREN'S ASSESSMENT CENTER
05.2017 - 01.2023
FORENSIC INTERVIEWER
THE CHILDREN'S ASSESSMENT CENTER
03.2016 - 05.2017
HUMAN SERVICES SPECIALIST VII
DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES
12.2015 - 03.2016
CLINICAL DIRECTOR
A WORLD FOR CHILDREN
07.2014 - 12.2015
SOCIAL WORKER
HEALTHBRIDGE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
08.2013 - 07.2014
SOCIAL SERVICE WORKER
BAIR FOUNDATION
04.2012 - 01.2013
CPS SPECIALIST II
TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY AND PROTECTIVE SERVICES
06.2010 - 02.2012
Master of Social Work -
Stephen F. Austin State University
Bachelor of Social Work -
Stephen F. Austin State University
Similar Profiles
Emily RentasEmily Rentas
Psychotherapist, Trainer and Consultant at Solstice Mental Health Counseling Services PLLCPsychotherapist, Trainer and Consultant at Solstice Mental Health Counseling Services PLLC
Yuvonne WrobelYuvonne Wrobel
Licensed Professional Counselor, Owner at Mental Health Warrior Counseling, PLLCLicensed Professional Counselor, Owner at Mental Health Warrior Counseling, PLLC
Megan MontgomeryMegan Montgomery
Licensed Mental Health Counselor at Journey Mental Health Counseling, PLLCLicensed Mental Health Counselor at Journey Mental Health Counseling, PLLC
Catherine MoralesCatherine Morales
Administrative Assistant at Cypress Lakes Animal HospitalAdministrative Assistant at Cypress Lakes Animal Hospital
Michael BouquetMichael Bouquet
Technical Solutions Specialists at PT SolutionsTechnical Solutions Specialists at PT Solutions