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.

Beginning this week, SWHPN will begin posting weekly updates from our committees, to highlight the important work each is doing to help advance the organization’s mission. This series is being launched by our Strategic Engagement committee, and the following was written by Jennifer Hirsch, LMSW and PhD candidate.

To help address complex trauma resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, five leading organizations are collaborating to offer free innovative resources for frontline providers on grief education. The Hospice and Palliative Nurses Foundation (HPNF), the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA), the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network (SWHPN), the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC), and the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) have received a grant from the American Nurses Foundation (ANF) to produce Dealing with GRIEF: A Series of 5 Short, Powerful Videos.

Caring for the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of patients and their families is a demanding vocation in typical times, and this initiative aims to provide timely and practical information during an unprecedented time. Research has also shown that a significant number of frontline providers, at all levels, exhibit secondary traumatic stress, bereavement, compassion fatigue, and burnout.

SWHPN held elections for its Board of Directors in March 2021 and is excited to announce the addition of seven new members. Read the full press release here.

Lori Eckel, LCSW, APHSW-C is the lead palliative care social worker and the senior ethics consultant at Legacy Health.  She received her MSW from Portland State University School of Social Work, completed advanced clinical training in palliative care from Smith School of Social Work, and completed the Zelda Foster Palliative Care Leadership Fellowship at NYU School of Social Work. Lori currently serves as an adviser and mentor for participants in both the Smith and NYU’s Zelda Foster programs. Her palliative care clinical social work has been focused in critical care and oncology and she has worked in both inpatient and outpatient settings. She serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Social Work in End of Life and Palliative Care.  In her ethics role, she oversees the ethics consultation service, co-leads review and development of ethically relevant institutional policies, and supports the continuing ethics education activities at Legacy Health. Lori appreciates opportunities to contribute to the well-being of health professionals, teaching students, and mentoring others in the field of palliative care. She has presented locally and nationally on topics related to advance care planning, moral distress, and ethical dimensions of end-of-life care.

In continuing with our work to speak up and challenge social injustice, SWHPN is issuing this statement condemning the hateful attacks against Asians, Asian-Americans, and Pacific Islanders. We have seen a rise in verbal and physical violence in cities across the United States because of anti-Asian racism following the COVID-19 pandemic (Ruiz, Horowitz, Tamir, 2020; Jeung, Yellow Horse, Popovic, Lin, 2021). In the murders of Korean-Americans on March 16th in Atlanta, we saw the twin biases of sexism and racism that Asian women, in particular, have been victims of in our societal structure of white patriarchy. Affirming our social work values, we explicitly reject all forms of racism, xenophobia, and nativism, and stand with our Asian-American victims of violence and hate. By doing so, we also acknowledge that the struggles of Asian-Americans are inextricably linked with other BIPOC communities in a common endeavor for the humanity of this country. We uphold the inherent dignity and worth of each person and challenge others to join us in working against anti-Asian violence.

We recognize that our statement must be followed with action. Understanding our positionality and respecting the vanguard role of the Asian-American community, we want to use this opportunity to highlight the work being done by our Asian American Social Workers, and advocacy groups like Asian Americans Advancing Justice and Stop AAPI Hate (@stopAAPIHate on Twitter). The Atlanta branch of the Asian Americans Advancing Justice released a very powerful statement earlier today that we encourage you to read, and amplify and donate if possible. The Chicago branch is holding a series of bystander intervention trainings during April that SWHPN staff will be participating in, and we encourage you to sign up (also available here, through ihollaback.org).

On December 27, 2020, H.R. 133, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 became public law. This 5,593-page year-end legislative package included a policy provision which should be of interest to hospice and palliative care social workers. Part of the “Helping Our Senior Population in Comfort Environments Act”, also known as the HOSPICE Act H.R. 5821, is a requirement for survey and enforcement procedures to improve consistency and oversight for hospice programs. 

Federal oversight of hospice programs is not a new development. The Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP), established in 2010 with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, mandated quality reporting requirements for hospice programs. Since that time, to provide transparency to consumers and improve care to hospice patients, hospices have been required to both measure and report quality care measures. The Hospice Act differs from the HQRP, in that it provides more detail about surveyor training, the survey process, and intermediate sanctions for hospices.  Surveys will continue to be required every 36 months and if there is more than one surveyor (required to be a nurse), it can be conducted by other members of the interdisciplinary team. The interdisciplinary surveyor team is an important opportunity for hospice social workers, in that it includes for the first time, the potential for professional social work oversight to be included in a Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) hospice survey. 

The Cambia Health Foundation has opened its 2021 Sojourns® Scholar Leadership Program Call for Applications and encourages palliative care professionals from across the country, including all disciplines and practice settings to apply.

The Sojourns Scholar Leadership Program is designed to identify, cultivate and advance the next generation of palliative care leaders. As part of the leadership program, each Sojourns Scholar receives $180,000 in funding ($90,000/year over a two-year period) to conduct an innovative and impactful clinical, policy, educational, health equity or systems change project in the field of palliative care. Scholars also participate with other scholars in a collaborative learning community while receiving individual mentorship to design and implement a development plan that supports their growth as national palliative care leaders.

SWHPN is thrilled to announce that three social workers have been announced as part of the seventh cohort of the Cambia Health Foundation’s Sojourns® Scholar Leadership Program. 

Cara L. Wallace, PhD, LMSW, APHSW-C of Saint Louis University; Rachel Rusch, LCSW, MSW, MA of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles; and SWHPN Board Member Stephanie P. Wladkowski, PhD, LMSW, APHSW-C of Eastern Michigan University were each carefully chosen through a rigorous selection process from a highly competitive pool. SWHPN is proud of their commitment to improving the experience of people facing serious illness and their caregivers. 

Watching the events from yesterday unfold, and then reading many responses on social media and in major news and journalistic outlets, we at SWHPN feel the need to reflect and respond. As an organization, we obviously strongly condemn the insurrectionist riot that occurred at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. and at statehouses around the country.

While social justice and self-determination are pillars of social work, what happened yesterday was an attempt by a group of nearly all-white people to compel their desired election result over the expressed wishes of millions of Americans who voted differently. Freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are guaranteed rights, but breaking windows and doors to enter Congress for the sole purpose to cause havoc and delay a procedural process to certify the President is not.

Though our field is facing unprecedented challenges, we are pleased to announce several exciting leadership changes taking place the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network (SWHPN) to lead our members through these uncertain times.

SWHPN appointed Jessica Strong as permanent Executive Director, after serving in the role of interim Executive Director for the past year. This appointment followed an organizational search and board voting process. In addition to leading the outstanding team of professionals who have implemented SWHPN’s annual General Assemblies over the past five years, Jessica led SWHPN’s most recent strategic planning process that initiated the formalization of SWHPN’s current organizational structure. The goals set in that process have helped to provide extraordinary growth of SWHPN this year and have set the course for a bright future. One of her first initiatives was successfully securing a two-year grant from the Cambia Health Foundation to provide educational webinars to support the professional development needs of hospice and palliative care social workers. We are grateful to the Cambia Health Foundation for their continued support which will support these new initiatives.

Deadline: December 31, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has created changes and challenges in how social work practice is being conducted in all areas of the health care system due to guidelines and restrictions put in place in response to the pandemic. Thus, hospice, palliative and other social workers are being tasked with supporting individuals, families, and co-workers in new, unforeseen, and creative ways. In this special issue, social workers are encouraged to share reflections about the situations, challenges and changes they are experiencing as well as the processes of new ways to connect with those in most in need of intervention. In addition, it is important that social workers’ practice self-care and so papers on approaches to doing so during this stressful time are welcome.

As SWHPN gathers resources for its social workers who are facing an unprecedented time in their practice, we've issued our first tip sheet: Working with Families Facing Undesired Outcomes During the COVID-19 Crisis.

You can find tip sheets and additional tools, resources, and information on the COVID-19 Resources Page. Please share widely.

TAKE THE SURVEY

The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, in partnership with the National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care and RAND Health, is leading a three-year effort to develop patient-reported quality measures in outpatient palliative care for the CMS Quality Payment Program.

SWHPN is a member of the Coalition and is inviting programs that provide outpatient palliative care services to adult patients (and you can provide inpatient services, as long as you provide outpatient services) to consider serving as a testing site in this effort.
 
RAND Health will be leading a national field test of patient-reported items among outpatient palliative care programs, and field testing will begin in September 2019.
 
The benefits of participating as a testing site include:

SWHPN is inviting its members, colleagues, and friends to participate in a research study questionnaire asking about your work experience, future plans, and professional stressors: the HPC Workforce Study. A social work-specific section is included for your input. If you work with seriously ill patients, you should consider participating in this study. This workforce survey is for all members of the interdisciplinary team.

SWHPN is proud to be participating, along with several other national organizations including AAHPM, HPNA, PAHPM and SCA/HCCN, in this important study. The results may be published as part of a Palliative Care specialty workforce series in Health Affairs.

By completing this survey, you are consenting to participate. No identifying information will be collected or reported. Other than contributing to our field's knowledge in this area, there are no other benefits to participation. The survey will take less than 15 minutes to complete, and is available here: http://www.hpcworkforcesurvey.com/