Social Work End-of-Life Care Interventions for Patients and their Families in Hospital

ABSTRACT

As the majority of Australians receive end-of-life care in hospitals, there is a need to examine the quality of social work interventions for dying patients and their families. Clinical data mining of 347 deceased patient’s files revealed different approaches to end-of-life interventions across one health network. Data demonstrate that although social workers are invaluable in providing emotional and practical assistance, greater awareness and education around evidence-based psychosocial bereavement risk and support may improve family support. Further development of theoretical and practical knowledge examining the interface between physical aspects of end-of-life care and social work intervention is warranted.

IMPLICATIONS

• Truly holistic biopsychosocial social work involves consideration of the physical body. For end-of-life care, this includes families’ distress around patients’ symptoms as well as their own health during bereavement.

• Dying patients and their families should receive equitable social work intervention across settings integrating evidence around psychosocial bereavement risk.

KEYWORDS:

• End-of-Life Care
• Medical Social Work
• Grief and Loss

Acknowledgements

We thank the Monash Health social workers for their support in the initial design of this project. We thank Dr Peta Skujins and Dr Ian Hunt for their support with statistical design and analysis.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.