Joseph S. Tavitian, LSW

Joe Tavitian is a Licensed Social Worker (LSW) and has been Director of Social Services and Admissions Coordinator at Lakeview House since May of 2007. He is responsible for assessing the psychosocial well-being of each of the residents on a regular basis, evaluating mood, behavior, judgment, and cognition. He coordinates with an outside psychiatric team of psychiatric nurse practitioners and master’s degree level clinicians from Lahey Health Behavioral Services. He also works with a team of community support coordinators for the purpose of assisting residents in the Rest Home with cognitive issues. He collaborates with residents, staff, next of kin, activated health care agents, guardians and elder law attorneys.

As Admissions Coordinator, Joe reaches out to patients in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, psychiatric facilities, and to those professionals active within human service agencies such as Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley. He provides outreach and education for those at home who are no longer able to care for themselves. In conjunction with the Director of Nurses, he schedules and assists with admission tours. He attends health care conferences and trainings across the region, constantly working to stay on top of the latest innovations in elder care. Joe participates in meetings to design customized plans-of-care with skilled nursing residents and their families, and also participates in discharge planning.

Formerly Joe worked for the Department of Transitional Assistance in Massachusetts, serving his last twenty years as a financial assistance supervisor. Prior to that he was a personal lines underwriter for the Continental Insurance Companies in Boston.

A graduate of Suffolk University in Boston, Joe majored in sociology. Joe served in the United States Army trained as a Military Stenographer and served as a Public Information Specialist for Signal Group 22, STRATCOM-EUROPE, in Mannheim, Germany, during the Vietnam era. He studied photography at the New England School of Photography in Boston and with the New England Institution of Professional Photographers, and remains devoted to this visual art form.

He is a member of the Merrimack Valley Health Care Social Workers Association and is an active member of Saint Gregory’s Church, Haverhill, MA.