Custom AI Assistant: Build Your Social Work Documentation Assistant in Claude

What This Builds

Instead of re-explaining your role, documentation format, and institutional preferences every time you open Claude, this guide shows you how to build a persistent social work documentation assistant using Claude Projects. Once set up, every conversation in your Project already knows you're an LCSW at a hospital, knows your preferred note format, and has your best prompt templates pre-loaded — so you start each session mid-stride instead of from zero.

Prerequisites

• Comfortable using Claude for documentation tasks (Level 3)
• Claude Pro subscription ($20/month)
• Time needed: 60-90 minutes to build; ongoing use is as fast as regular Claude
• Cost: $20/month (Claude Pro required for Projects feature)

The Concept

A Claude Project is like setting up a new colleague who already knows your name, your role, your favorite documentation format, and the templates you always use. Every conversation in that Project inherits everything you told it in the Project Instructions — you never have to repeat yourself. It's the difference between hiring a temp every day and having a dedicated assistant who shows up already briefed.

Build It Step by Step

Part 1: Create your Project

1. Log into claude.ai with your Pro account
2. In the left sidebar, click + New Project (or find the Projects section)
3. Name your project: "Social Work Documentation Assistant"
4. You'll see a Project Instructions field — this is where you define who Claude is and what it knows about your work

Part 2: Write your Project Instructions

This is the most important step. In the Project Instructions field, write a detailed context document. Copy and customize this:

You are a documentation assistant for a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) working at a general hospital. Your role is to help draft professional clinical documentation quickly and accurately.

ROLE CONTEXT:
- I am an LCSW at a hospital with inpatient and ED settings
- I see 20-35 patients daily across multiple units (medicine, surgery, oncology, palliative care)
- My primary documentation tasks: progress notes, discharge summaries, referral letters, safety plans, prior authorization letters, and psychoeducation handouts
- All documentation goes into Epic (our EHR)

DOCUMENTATION PREFERENCES:
- Progress notes: SOAP format preferred (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan)
- Length: 150-250 words for progress notes; 300-400 for discharge summaries
- Tone: Professional, clinical, third-person ("patient reports...", "social worker assessed...")
- No jargon that would confuse a non-social-work reader
- Include specific interventions: "active listening," "motivational interviewing," "safety planning," etc.

HIPAA NOTE:
- All patient information I share will be de-identified. I will use patient type descriptors (e.g., "elderly male post-cardiac surgery") rather than real names or DOBs unless I specifically note I'm using a HIPAA-compliant context.

DOCUMENT TEMPLATES I USE MOST:
1. Progress note: SOAP format with S/O/A/P headers
2. Discharge summary: Admission reason → Psychosocial assessment → Discharge plan → Services arranged → Follow-up
3. Referral letter: Introduction → Clinical justification → Patient needs → Insurance → Signature block
4. Safety plan: Warning signs → Internal coping → Social contacts → Professional resources → Crisis line + ER
5. Prior auth: Service requested → Clinical criteria met → Treatment plan → Duration

RESPOND WITH:
- The requested document, formatted and ready to copy to Epic
- A one-line note if you're uncertain about any clinical assumption I haven't specified
- Keep your own commentary minimal — I just need the document

Click Save when done.

Part 3: Test and refine your Project

Start a new conversation within your Project and test a few prompts:

1. Test 1 — Progress note: "Write a progress note for an elderly woman post-hip-replacement. S: anxious about going home, lives alone. O: alert, appropriate affect. A: Discharge anxiety with limited support. P: Arrange home health eval, contact daughter."

2. Test 2 — Referral letter: "Referral letter to outpatient behavioral health program for an adult male with recurrent depression, stabilized on medication, ready for outpatient therapy. Has Medicaid."

3. Test 3 — Safety plan: "Safety plan for a young adult with suicidal ideation, no plan or means, agreeable to safety planning."

For each: check that the output matches your format, length, and tone preferences. If it doesn't, go back to the Project Instructions and adjust.

Common adjustments:

• Note too long? Add "Maximum 200 words" to the progress note template definition
• Tone too formal/informal? Add a specific example of good vs. bad phrasing
• Missing a key section? Add it to your template definition

Real Example: A Day Using Your Claude Project

Setup: Your Project has been built and your preferences are saved.

Input (9:15am — between patients):

Progress note — patient is a 45-year-old woman in oncology, newly diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. Just told family. Husband and adult daughter present. S: Patient crying but composed, asking about support resources and what to expect emotionally. O: Tearful, appropriate, oriented. A: Acute emotional adjustment to new diagnosis. P: Provided active listening, normalized reaction, offered referral to oncology social work support group, gave resource handout, will follow up tomorrow.

Output: Claude instantly generates a 200-word SOAP note in your preferred format, using your documentation style, ready to paste into Epic.

Time saved: What would have taken 20 minutes to draft takes 90 seconds.

What to Do When It Breaks

• Outputs feel generic, not clinical → Your Project Instructions need more specificity — add examples of the language style you want
• Format keeps changing → Re-save your Project Instructions and test; sometimes a new conversation in the same Project resets formatting
• Note is too long or too short → Add explicit word count constraints to each template definition in your Instructions
• Claude adds unnecessary disclaimers → Add to your Instructions: "Do not add legal disclaimers, ethical warnings, or meta-commentary — provide only the requested documentation"

Variations

• Simpler version: Use the same system prompt in a single conversation instead of a Project — less persistent but still much better than no context
• Extended version: Add a "Reference Documents" section to your Project with commonly needed community resources, your hospital's discharge checklist, and common prior auth criteria — Claude can reference these within the Project

What to Do Next

• This week: Build your Project Instructions and run 20 notes through it; adjust based on output quality
• This month: Add documentation for your two most common patient types as examples in the Project Instructions
• Advanced: Connect Claude via API to a notes app (Notion, Obsidian) to automatically save generated documents — see advanced automation workflows

Advanced guide for clinical social worker professionals. Claude Projects requires Claude Pro subscription. Tool features may change — check claude.ai for current Project capabilities.