Social Work Practice and End of Life Care

This book draws together the learning of a wide range of social workers and other professionals engaged in end of life care who recognise that dying is essentially a social experience and want to tailor a personal, professional and societal response accordingly. Through a systemic lens, the book explores the nature and experience of living and dying in the UK today, then considers ways in which social workers and others may want to work with people who are affected by a diagnosis of a life-threatening condition.

The contributors offer rich and contemporary perspectives on death, dying and loss, reflective of their different approaches and interests. The insights of the book are timely, given the growing levels and changing nature of needs for people who are coming to the end of their life in the UK and beyond, and the related requirements for compassionate, personalised and holistic care within the increasingly professionalised arena of health and social care.

This book will be of interest to social work practitioners, students, and others committed to psychosocial support of people who are dying or bereaved, and who want to consider how to provide this support most effectively. Professionals who are interested in working alongside social workers to deliver high quality end of life care will also find this publication useful. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Social Work Practice.

Heather Richardson is Joint Chief Executive of St Christopher’s Hospice, London, and Honorary Professor in Palliative Care at Lancaster University, UK. She is a nurse, and has held clinical, managerial and leadership roles in hospice/palliative care over the last thirty years. Her PhD focused on people’s experience of day hospice.

Gillian Chowns is a social worker by profession, and has practised, lectured and researched in palliative care. Her PhD examined the experience of children living with the life-threatening illness of a parent. She is Chair of the Board of Trustees of Palliative Care Works, a charity offering education, training and mentoring in resource-poor settings.