Social Work and Spiritual Counseling: Results of One State Audit

How can social workers be meaningfully involved in palliative care? A scoping review on the prerequisites and how they can be realised in practice

Palliative care is a holistic practice using a multidisciplinary approach in addressing multidimensional needs. Although the social aspects surrounding the end-of-life phase suggest a place for social work in it, the profession is often inadequately involved in daily practice. This contrasts strongly with the potential meaningful contributions of social workers in this field. To date, no comprehensive list of prerequisites for meaningful social work involvement in palliative care exists. This review aims to gain more insight on the prerequisites for meaningful social work involvement in palliative care and how to realise them in practice. It could therefore provide pathways for future intervention development in enhancing the involvement of social workers and maximising their contributions in palliative care. A scoping review methodology was used. A systematic selection of peer-reviewed articles ranged from 2000 to April 2021 – out of the electronic databases Web of Science, Scopus and Pubmed – was conducted. The 170 articles that met the eligibility criteria were analysed for relevant content using open and axial coding processes. The findings are reported according to the PRISMA-ScR checklist. The nine prerequisites listed in this review concern the level of individual social work capacities and the level of contextual factors structuring social work practices. A majority of articles have, however, focused on the level of individual social work capacities in a rather specialist view on palliative care. Future research should further address the contextual level of social work involvement in the broader practice of death, dying and bereavement.

Communication dynamics in hospice teams: understanding the role of the chaplain in interdisciplinary team collaboration

BACKGROUND

Hospice chaplains provide a specific expertise to patient and family care, however, individual roles and responsibilities that facilitate the interdisciplinary team environment are less well known.

OBJECTIVE

The primary aim of this study was to investigate how hospice chaplains perceive their role in interdisciplinary team meetings and to what extent hospice chaplains share common experiences within the interdisciplinary team approach in hospice.

METHOD

Hospice chaplains within a 10-state region participated in a 39-item phone survey about professional roles, group roles, and structural characteristics that influence their ability to participate in interdisciplinary collaboration.

RESULTS

Findings revealed that professional role conflict is experienced, primarily with social workers. Informal group task and maintenance roles included team spiritual care advisor and conflict manager, and structural characteristics consisted of extracurricular communication outside of the organization.

CONCLUSIONS

Although chaplains foster interdisciplinary collaboration within the hospice team, future research needs to address improvements to the chaplain's role within the interdisciplinary team process.

Pediatric palliative and end-of-life care: the role of social work in pediatric oncology

Pediatric oncology social workers are often engaged in the psychosocial care of dying children and their families. Despite their participation on the interdisciplinary team, the role for social work in pediatric palliative and end-of-life care has not been clearly defined. This survey of 131 pediatric oncology social workers identified current and best social work practices for care of children and their families at the end of life. Implications for practice, education, and research are discussed.