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Abstract
It is widely acknowledged that social workers play a pivotal role in the delivery of palliative care. A group undertook a process to define and validate social work competencies in palliative and end-of-life care delivery. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the palliative care social work practice competencies developed in the Canadian context and to illustrate them with case examples. The competencies involve a complex interaction of values, knowledge and skills. The next phase in the development of these competencies is to embed them in the system of social work education at all levels. The case examples illustrate the importance of social work practice in palliative care. They also demonstrate that the competencies are interconnected as certain aspects of social work practice and client and family experience arise in various areas and guises. Ultimately, the goal is excellent palliative care to clients and their families throughout the trajectory of a serious illness and social workers have an important role to play in that.