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PRESS RELEASE: April 2, 2002

SOCIAL WORKERS SET GOALS To Strengthen Care for the Dying and the Bereaved

Social Workers Assert Their Roles As Key Players in Palliative & End-of-Life Care

Durham, NC—During a three-day summit, social work and end-of-life care experts designed a social work agenda to improve care for the dying and their families.  The agenda calls for organized professional leadership, standards of practice, and increased preparation at all levels of social work education.

Plenary Session at the Social Work Summit on End-of-Life and Palliative Care in Durham, NC.

“Our goal is to form a coalition of national organizations, institutions and experts that can enhance and elevate end-of-life care training, education, practice, research and policy within our profession and beyond, ” said summit co-coordinator Susan Blacker, LCSW-C of The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.

The Social Work Summit on End-of-Life and Palliative Care, held March 20 – 22 at Duke University, addressed the need for a formalized collaborative effort within the social work profession that focuses on end-of-life care and highlighted the importance of grief work to end-of-life care.

Leaders from national social work organizations, schools of social work, hospices and hospitals, government agencies and end-of-life care advocacy groups attended the meeting on behalf of more than 30 organizations.  The groups in attendance represented over 160,000 practicing social workers.

“The summit was an opportunity for the many prominent leaders in this field to sit down and design a comprehensive agenda for the future” said summit co-coordinator Grace Christ, DSW, of Columbia University School of Social Work. “One of our goals is to advocate for greater attention to grief work and the psychosocial dimensions of palliative care”.

Often limited attention is given to strengthening these areas in multidisciplinary education, practice, research, and policy development.  Participants agreed that, in order to more adequately reflect the breadth and depth of Social Work practice and patients' and families' needs, social work should encompass Palliative, End-of-Life Care, and Grief Work (PEG)”. Since the September 11 tragedies, we have become more aware of the importance of standards of practice that include grief work for cases of sudden, traumatic or catastrophic deaths," she added.

Gaps In Education

Social workers take the lead in providing essential emotional and social services to the dying and the bereaved, including counsel on advance directives, emotional support to the terminally ill, and assistance in locating healthcare and financial resources.  Yet, social workers report gaps in end-of-life care education at the undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels and lack of access to leadership in practice, teaching, research and advocacy.

“By encouraging collaborative efforts between schools of social work, practice sites and professional disciplines, we will reduce the professional isolation experienced by many social workers and strengthen professional practice of palliative and end-of-life care,” said Blacker.

Additional priorities established at the summit include:

·        Promoting advocacy, education, research, networking and sharing of information between individual social workers and national organizations.

·        Increasing social work research in palliative & end-of-life care and grief work.

·        Incorporating cultural sensitivity, lifespan variations, and interdisciplinary context throughout the end-of-life care educational curriculum.

·        Increasing  public awareness through an educational campaign regarding psychosocial dimensions of palliative, end-of-life and grief work care and the role of social work in this care.

“Social workers touch a broad array of areas within end-of-life care,” said Christ. “Through practice, education, research and policy development, we have the power to influence the culture of death in America.”   

The summit was co-sponsored by the Last Acts Provider Education Committee, The Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life, and the Soros Foundation’s Project on Death in America. To learn more about improving care and caring at the end-of-life, visit www.lastacts.org.  Funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Last Acts  has more than 870 member organizations.

The Project on Death in America’s Social Work Leadership Development Awards Program identifies and supports outstanding social work faculty and clinicians who are committed to improving the care of the dying and the bereaved.

Those social workers interested in joining a dialogue with colleagues interested in palliative and end-of-life care are invited to join a profession listserv hosted by The Beth Israel Department of Pain and Palliative Care.  This listserv, created with support from the Project on Death in America’s Social Work Leadership Development Award, provides an opportunity for social workers in such fields as oncology, geriatrics, HIV, hospice, nephrology, and pediatrics to network and discuss multidimensional aspects and issues related to palliative and end-of-life care.  To join, contact Terry Altilio, ACSW, listserv co-coordinator, at taltilio@bethisraelny.org.

Questions about the Social Work Leadership Summit on Palliative and End-of-Life Care should be directed to Grace Christ at ghc1@columbia.edu or Susan Blacker at blacksu@jhmi.edu.

Press Release Contact:

Sonja Gerald, 301-652-1558

Click here to see pictures from the summit

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