Liberty Commons Director of Social Services Beth Lagg, born and raised on the Cape, had been planning a career working with children with disabilities until her senior year at Bridgewater State University, in 2000.

“I took an internship in a nursing home,” she remembers, “and I really liked the population, I realized this was the group of people I wanted to help.”

After graduation she became activities director for another nursing facility on Cape Cod, her college emphasis on physical education helpful. During a maternity leave she found time to study for her social work license, though “as a new mom I wasn’t quite ready to swap careers.” When her second child joined the family, and a part-time job became available at Liberty Commons, it seemed like a great moment for transition, moving into social work, 10 to 15 patients to start, a growing family also needing love and attention.

As the kids grew and her experience deepened, when the director position came open it was a natural opportunity to step up again.

“Much of my time is spent meeting new patients and their families,” she says. “We’re mainly on the sub-acute unit, meaning shorter term rehabilitation stays, so one of the things we talk about early on is goals for planning to go home. If someone is here because of a knee replacement, they might be heading home next week. If someone has had a stroke, they might need a few months of rehabilitation. The initial plans and goals don’t always come about as expected, but they’re very important discussions to have early on.”

So in conversations about whether returning home is feasible (almost everyone’s preference), what that might entail, whether a supported stay elsewhere is a better option, or whether long-term care might be necessary. “Our role is helping with questions,” Beth says, “not providing answers necessarily, just helping with questions which get to better answers.”

With three social workers in her department, several of whom she has worked with for as long as seven years, her job seems evenly divided between seeing patients, administration, and oversight. “We work closely with the rehabilitation and nursing departments,” she explains, including twice-weekly meetings that focus on every patient. That includes having a psychologist available.

Workdays are varied, and not regulated by a strict clock. But Beth has a comforting element to her routine; she knows, when the time comes, that the commute home is short, back to family and her hometown where she still lives, Harwich.