Palliative Care Social Work: A Year of Leadership

by Vickie Leff(@VickieLeff) and Allie Shukraft(@Alifrumcally)It has been an amazing year for those of us who are palliative care social workers. The4th edition of National Palliative Care Guidelines, published this fall, addingseveral psychosocial focused domains to the list of best care practices.1 Many of the 8 domains specifically highlight the expert skill set of social workers on the interdisciplinary team. Palliative care social workers were delighted to see these highlighted in the guidelines. Palliative Care teams work best when they allow members to practice to the top of their license. Although there is often overlap, especially in the arena of psychosocial care, social workers are usually the backbone of providing these services.We saw the FIRST advanced practice, evidence-based certification for palliative care& hospice social workers open for testing in January 2019: a significant step for social workers in a concerted effort to be recognized and respected for our work within the field. TheAPHSW-C certification was the result of years of work, spearheaded by Barbara Head and the leadership of Social Work in Hospice and Palliative Network (SWHPN). Comprehensive, evidence-based standards were developed and reviewed by experts in the field.2 The result is a pathway for pc and hospice social workers to validate their special skill set, which may, over time, lead not only to increased validity but more leadership and financial opportunities. Hopefully, this advanced p...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - Category: Palliative Care Tags: certification leff shukraft social work SWHPN Source Type: blogs