More than the medication

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Tyler Tracy Houston
6 years ago
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1 Effective Practice More than the medication Social work with people nearing the end of life Gerry Nosowska, Effective Practice

2 Enabling people to live their lives exactly as they want it s more than the medication, it is something aside from treatment. Comfort? Peace of mind? (Bereaved man in his sixties)

3 Our vision People will have access to a palliative care social worker with the capabilities and resources to help them when they need it, and All social workers will be able to help people, their families, and those close to them to realise the value of what they can do and give to each other at the end of their life and during bereavement, and to get the support they need.

4 It s an awful thing to do, to have to take your loved one and leave them behind - a dreadful thing. (Bereaved husband in his sixties)

6 I sit with her for over an hour while she explores her emotional and spiritual pain. (Palliative Care Social Worker)

7 Palliative care social workers specialise in working with adults and children who are at the end of their life, their families, those they are close to and their communities. They use their particular skills and knowledge to help people to deal with the impact of what is happening to them, including loss and bereavement, and to have a good life and a good death. They work in partnership with people they offer support to. They work alongside other professions, agencies, organisations and as part of the wider community in which they are based. They bring social care expertise and perspective to situations in order to ensure that people get the support they need. Palliative care social workers may work in hospices or hospitals, in the community, or in prisons.

8 I want health workers to be positive and express what is going on in the right way without being negative. I am very positive about my life. (Phone interview with woman who uses a drop in centre)

9 It will be my wife who makes decisions for me, when I m no longer able. But I have it all written down, things of importance to me. It s all written down. (Man in his eighties attending a hospice day centre)

10 I don t want sympathy, just support. I don t like people feeling sorry for me. It s just some support, I suppose, practical support. (Woman attending a drop in centre, age unknown)

11 I do not like it, when people who have not been ill say to you Oh you are so brave! I hate that. I just want to be treated as me. Just see me as I was and forget the cancer. It s not all that I am. (Woman in her sixties/seventies in a hospice day centre)

12 People need to know how bloody tough this is going to be. We shouldn t protect people. This isn t going to be easy. It s going to be bloody tough. (Bereaved husband in his sixties)

13 We work holistically, combining emotional and practical skills, to enable people to achieve what matters most to them. We are active in improving things, we are flexible and adaptive, and we are at our best as enablers when we are least conspicuous. (Resource working group)

Our starting point as social workers is to find out what really matters to the people we are there to help and what needs to happen in order for them to have a good death

14 Our starting point as social workers is to find out what really matters to the people we are there to help and what needs to happen in order for them to have a good death not just in the sense of what happens in their last hours and minutes but how they can live as well as possible for whatever time they have left. (Resource working group)

15 Our aims All social workers are able to learn from people who experience end of life and bereavement Everyone knows what palliative care social work is and what it offers, and how to access palliative care social work All social workers learn about loss, grief and bereavement Social workers see palliative care as a core part of all social work practice, as well as a specialist route they can take Palliative care social workers have the support they need Palliative care social workers are available as a resource for other social workers.

17 Invitation and final words I owe the story to us both. (Bereaved daughter in her sixties)

18 Actions What I can control What I can influence Outside my control Effective Practice

19 Contact Gerry Effective Practice

Background. Yet, as a nation, we find it hard to talk about and harder still to help people dealing with a bereavement.

Background. Yet, as a nation, we find it hard to talk about and harder still to help people dealing with a bereavement. A better grief 2 A better grief Background We all experience bereavement and grief at some stage in our lives. Seventy-two per cent of us have been bereaved at least once in the last five years, according