Journal of social work in end-of-life & palliative care
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J Soc Work End Life Palliat Care · Jan 2005
Professional social work education in end-of-life care: contributions of the Project on Death in America's Social Work Leadership Development program.
Social work education in both BSW and MSW level courses is missing vital content about end-of-life care, palliative care, and bereavement. End-of-life care training opportunities through continuing education programs have also been limited. ⋯ These include: end-of-life care courses, symposia, training manuals, certificate programs and fellowships. Although the curricula continue to be refined, many of these programs are available to practitioners to advance their knowledge and skills and their curricular models are available to social work educators for possible replication.
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J Soc Work End Life Palliat Care · Jan 2005
Developing practice tools for social workers in end-of-life care.
This article describes the National Association of Social Workers' (NASW) strategies for providing social workers with important practice and policy information about palliative and end-of-life care. With funding from a Soros Foundation's Project on Death in America grant, NASW developed practice standards, a Web-based continuing education course, and drafted a new policy statement to guide social workers in end-of-life care practice. The article provides an in-depth view of the development and scope of these resources for professional social workers.
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J Soc Work End Life Palliat Care · Jan 2005
Social work competencies in palliative and end-of-life care.
Social workers from clinical, academic, and research settings met in 2002 for a national Social Work Leadership Summit on Palliative and End-of-Life Care. Participants placed the highest priority on the development and broad dissemination of a summary document of the state-of-the-art practice of social work in palliative and end-of-life care. ⋯ This comprehensive statement delineates individual, family, group, team, community, and organizational interventions that extend across settings, cultures, and populations and encompasses advocacy, education, training, clinical practice, community organization, administration, supervision, policy, and research. This document is intended to guide preparation and credentialing of professional social workers, to assist interdisciplinary colleagues in their collaboration with social workers, and to provide the background for the testing of quality indicators and "best practice" social work interventions.
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J Soc Work End Life Palliat Care · Jan 2005
Case ReportsFacilitating forgiveness and peaceful closure: the therapeutic value of psychosocial intervention in end-of-life care.
The importance of addressing psychosocial concerns with dying patients is pivotal to facilitating peaceful closure in end of- life care. The social worker's role in recognizing and providing skilled, psychosocial intervention with patients and families in hospice programs is significant. ⋯ The case offers social work knowledge and skills and demonstrates the therapeutic benefit of addressing psychosocial needs in end-of-life care. The importance of targeted training and continued skill development for social workers in end-of-life treatment settings is emphasized.
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Research on hospice use by Latinos, although increasing since the late 1990s, remains sparse. This article presents a review of the recent available literature on this topic within the past 15 years. The main aspects discussed are access to hospice care and various factors that researchers suggest affect Latino utilization of hospice care. ⋯ No evidence exists to indicate that Latinos are dissatisfied with services once they receive them. Also, no evidence exists to indicate they want services but cannot obtain them. Implications for social work practice and research are discussed.