Check out the recent article from the Washington Post addressing gender bias in medicine.

What do you think? Do you see this in your work?

Dr. Barbara Head’s passion for education and our specialty of hospice and palliative care has helped to support, nurture, and strengthen so many social workers, nurses, physicians, chaplains, students, and other health professionals. We are all very grateful for her service. Barbara is currently receiving hospice care. Please join us in acknowledging the impact she has had on the lives of so many through your donation to honor her as a Florence Wald Champion. 

Barbara has been a lifelong champion for hospice and palliative care. Prior to entering academics, she worked at a large hospice program in Louisville, Kentucky, as a home care nurse, quality-improvement director, and staff/community education director. She has served as both a board member and president of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA) and the Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center (HPCC) and as a member of the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network (SWHPN) Board of Directors. 

We wanted to give a shout-out of recognition to several of SWHPN's Board members who are doing some amazing work!

Myra Glajchen, DSW, MSW, BSW, ACSW, APHSW-C

Dr. Myra Glajchen is the 2022 recipient of the Hyman J. Weiner Leadership Award. This award honors a member of the Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care who possesses outstanding qualities as a teacher, scholar, advocate, change agent, and humorous and compassionate person. Candidates are selected for their demonstration of these qualities, as well as for their excellence in the advancement of the practice of social work in health care settings.

We are excited about the introduction of HR 8840/S4873 Improve Access to Advance Care Planning Act. We applaud Rep. Blumenauer, Sen. Collins, Sen. Warner, Sen. Collins and Sen. Klobuchar for proposing this bill.

This bill improves access to advance care planning (ACP) in multiple ways, and improved access is better for value-based health care. ACP conversations are important voluntary conversations that engage patients in sharing their values, goals, and preferences regarding future medical care. Advance care planning is associated with documentation of values and preferences, patient and surrogate satisfaction with communication, and positive surrogate outcomes such as caregiver burden and distress (1). Allowing for billing of ACP incentivizes the health care system to engage in this beneficial practice, and thus far these codes are considered somewhat underutilized.

We, the board members of the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network (SWHPN) recently made a statement in response to the demographic data released by the Association of the Social Work Boards (ASWB). We noted our concern about the inevitable inherent racial bias embedded in the exam. Representing an organization of social workers working to bring humanity to serious illness and end-of-life care, we continue to reflect on ways to challenge the systems that deny and defy the basic humanity in all of us. It is in this endeavor that we respond to the recent New York Times opinion piece written by John McWhorter. 

In his opinion piece, Mr. McWhorter takes issue with the protest against the ASWB exam as racist. He points to the petition on Change.org and derides it for not sufficiently explaining why the tests are racist. Whether or not you believe the assertion that the test is racist depends on whether or not you believe the educational system in the United States, from preschool to graduate school, is embedded in a racist system and is infused with racist practices. There has been sufficient research data that support the fact that there are “categorical inequalities between Black and white students” in disciplinary policies, access to advanced courses, assignment to gifted and talented and special needs programs, and in practices of racialized tracking. The truth is that 68 years since the US Supreme Court ruling in Brown v Board of Education, high levels of racial and economic segregation persist in most metropolitan areas and with it, disparities in education. 

Hello SWHPN Members! On behalf of the SWHPN Board and staff, we hope you are enjoying a relaxing and safe summer. At the 2022 Conference, we extended our commitment to enhanced communications and transparency with our members. We hope you have enjoyed the new monthly Membership newsletter which came out last week, as well as our first Advocacy and Policy newsletter.  It was developed in conjunction with several Board members, and is generously supported by Healthsperian, a Washington DC-based company that provides healthcare advocacy on behalf of non-profits across the country; they are providing this to SWHPN free of charge to help our members stay abreast of policy issues that may impact our field, and have been supporters of SWHPN conferences for a number of years.

Additionally, we are working to write more regular blog posts, to provide more opportunities to gather feedback from members, and to develop new member benefits, including leadership and professional development opportunities. We also want to make sure our members stay up-to-date on what is happening behind the scenes with the Board and staff as we take on our own development to transform the organization into an anti-racist, inclusive space. 

SWHPN Statement on SCOTUS Dobbs v. Jackson Ruling

The Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network (SWHPN) is outraged and profoundly disappointed at the decision released on Friday, June 24 by the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dobbs vs Jackson ruling. This decision not only becomes the first Supreme Court decision to take away recognized individual liberty by ignoring stare decisis, it also places many people’s, and in particular, women’s autonomy lives, and well-being in jeopardy.  It conflicts with the Social Work Code of Ethics by interfering with social workers’ commitment to the dignity and worth of every person, and people’s rights to self-determination, especially over their bodies. Bodily integrity and autonomy are cornerstones for liberty within our society. We anticipate that those who have been historically marginalized and excluded within our society will suffer greatly, and disproportionately, from this decision. We will remain vigilant and encourage our members to work for unfettered access to high-quality health care for every person in our country. Social workers will stand firm in our commitment to social justice, access to quality healthcare, including reproductive health, and the right of every person to self-determination and liberty. 

Reflections from the Executive Director

Sunday was Juneteenth, a federal holiday recognizing June 19, 1865 as the date enslaved people in Texas were declared free, more than two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Because the date fell on a Sunday this year, many people found themselves with the day off from work on Monday, June 20.

To be honest, I have struggled with how to approach Juneteenth in a manner that respects and honors the holiday, given that I am a White woman. Saying “Happy Juneteenth” to the Black people in my life seems not quite the correct phrase (and certainly not to other White people); neither does taking the day off to relax and peruse online sales.

Late yesterday afternoon, I received an email from Jess Eckstrom, an entrepreneur that I don’t recall following, but must have subscribed to her newsletter at some point. She shared thoughts from Crystal Whiteaker, an inclusive branding expert active on social media. I don’t know either of them, but I really loved Crystal’s suggestions for ways that non-Black Americans can honor the Juneteenth holiday. I am sharing them in their entirety below, and they can be accessed from her Instagram link above.

"Here are some ways to honor Juneteenth...

For my fellow Black Americans, my only advice for you is to prioritize your joy and well-being. Do what feels good for your mind, body, and spirit.

Personally, this year, I have chosen to prioritize my time and energy for people and things that expand, nourish, or compensate me to honor my value of empowerment.

For non-Black Americans, here are some ways you can honor Juneteenth if you haven’t begun to already:

》Learn about the history of Juneteenth and its significance.

》Acknowledge where you have privilege and influence and how it can be used to honor and support Black Americans.

》Support Black owned businesses.

》Pay Black people for their labor. (Think sliding into the Venmo, PayPal, or CashApp accounts of Black creators and educators you regularly consume from on social media. Mine are in my bio.)

》Regularly invest your time in learning about true Black history, beyond glorified Black trauma porn.

》Finally, if you have the day off and plan to host or attend a BBQ or gathering of any kind, I encourage you to open up a discussion about the history of Juneteenth and the impact of systemic oppression on Black Americans. If this seems like too heavy of a topic to bring up at a gathering, I invite you to try to imagine what it’s like to live as a Black person in America, unable to pick and choose how you might be impacted by oppressive white supremacist systems."

- Crystal Whiteaker

It’s hard to find the words and we are struggling with what to say. But how can we not say anything, not acknowledge the shootings, the grief, the tremendous loss, and suffering. 

In continuing our commitment to speak up against injustice, racism, and acts of violence committed against people of color, SWHPN is issuing this statement to acknowledge the grief, loss, and heaviness in the world right now. SWHPN condemns the recent racist attacks in Buffalo, NY, where 10 people were murdered by a white supremacist; the murders of Taiwanese-Americans in a church in Laguna Woods, California; the massacre of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in Uvalde; the killings at a medical facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma. These are just the acts within communities that made national headlines in the past few weeks. Yet gun violence remains a public health crisis that disproportionately affects Black and Brown communities. As of June 7, 2022, there have been 8,415 gun deaths and 247 mass shootings this year in the United States (1). 

On April 1, 2022, the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network (SWHPN) welcomed new leaders from its current Board members as Executive Officers of the organization. 

Anne Kelemen, LICSW, APHSW-C is the organization's new Chair, having served the past year as Vice-Chair. Danielle Jonas, MSW, LCSW is the organization’s new Vice-Chair, Caitlin Scanlon, MSW, LCSW is the new Secretary, and Tanisha Bowman, MSW, LSW, APHSW-C, CGP, NEDA Proficient is the new Treasurer. Stacy S. Remke, MSW, LICSW, APHSW-C will transition from Chair to Immediate Past Chair. Terms will run through March 31, 2023. 

Many of us have been anxiously watching the news from Ukraine and wondering what we can do to help. SWHPN is part of the World Hospice and Palliative Social Workers (WHPCSW.net) community. We are coming together now to support our HAPC colleagues in Ukraine, who are facing a humanitarian emergency through a critical lack of necessary medical supplies for patients in hospices, palliative care settings, and hospitals. These vulnerable patients and their families, as well as healthcare staff, are unable to leave the country while Russia is attacking.
 
SWHPN is collecting donations of funds and ensuring they get distributed to bona fide organizations and NGOs on the ground in Ukraine, Poland and Romania. The WHPCSW is actively helping connect people throughout our network. The head of the Ukrainian Association of Palliative and Hospice Care is asking for donations of needed medical supplies. Our contact in Ireland is planning to buy the supplies and get them to another contact at the Poland/Ukrainian border, and from there, we are working to secure transport to hospices throughout the country. You can help by donating here.

In March of 2021, the Improving Access to Mental Health Act of 2021 was introduced in the House. This bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), and Representative Barbara Lee, MSW (D-CA), will address gaps in services that Clinical Social Workers are able to provide under current law. 

There are 42 cosponsors in the House and 5 in the Senate. Per the NASW advocacy alert, we need at least 175 cosponsors in the House and over 50 in the Senate to demonstrate broad support for this bill and elevate it to potential consideration. It is anticipated that this might be a topic of focus in the coming months due to a recent request from the Senate Finance Committeeabout concerns that every American should be able to access high-quality behavioral health care when needed. 

Finding time to keep updated on pending palliative care legislation can be a challenge for busy palliative care practitioners. However, political advocacy work is as important as direct care work, and in some instances, may have the potential to improve lives and decrease suffering on a much larger scale. There is an urgent need to improve equitable access for all people who could benefit from palliative care, especially those who have been unfairly impacted by systemic racism and other forms of oppression in health care. This type of change will require some changes in public policy and laws. The palliative care community can work together to influence these changes through increasing engagement in political palliative care practice. 

Political palliative care is not partisan. Policy advocates view frontline healthcare professionals as important potential contributors for political action and advocacy due to their unique knowledge, proximity, and insight into the lives of the patients they care for. For patients with complex long-term healthcare needs, such as those served in palliative care, this type of practitioner advocacy can help communicate the perspective of a population of patients who may not be as well-equipped to communicate their experiences barriers to care and unmet needs.

The Congressional Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Caucus is a bipartisan effort of lawmakers started in July of 2021 to improve approaches for addressing health disparities experienced by persons disproportionately impacted by SDOH and improve well-being. In this effort, the Caucus is seeking comments and feedback from the public on challenges and opportunities related to SDOH by September 21, 2021.  

Next up in our new series looking at the activities of the various SWHPN committees is the Student Committee. We started this committee in late spring 2020, as a way to provide additional support focused on our SWHPN student members, especially during the pandemic. The committee is comprised of Board members and SWHPN members, some of whom teach BSW- and MSW-level students, as well as several people who are either getting their PhDs or have recently completed this process. The committee is chaired by Dr. Stephanie Wladkowski, PhD, LMSW, ACHP-SW, Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Eastern Michigan University.

In this past year, the committee has created and led six webinars, from tips for making the most of your field placement and finding a job, to learning more about the benefits of pursuing an MSW, DSW, and/or PhD, to learning how to lead a team meeting effectively. Collectively, these sessions reached hundreds of social work students, educating them about the field of hospice and palliative care, a specialization that few colleges and universities offer.