Hospice Social Work

This is the first book to explore the history, characteristics, and challenges of hospice social work, incorporating leading research into an underlying framework for practice and care. A longtime hospice social work practitioner, Dona J. Reese describes the hospice social work role in assessment and intervention with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and the community, while honestly confronting the personal and professional difficulties of such life-changing work. She introduces a well-tested model of psychosocial and spiritual variables that predict hospice client outcomes, and she advances a social work assessment tool that documents their occurrence. Operating at the center of national leaders' coordinated efforts to develop and advance professional organizations and guidelines for end-of-life care, Reese reaches out with support and practice information, helping social workers understand their significance in treating the whole person, contributing to the cultural competence of hospice settings, and claiming a definitive place within the hospice team.

Dona J. Reese is an associate professor at the School of Social Work, Southern Illinois University. She is a former hospice social worker and former Social Worker Section Leader for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, and she has worked with colleagues to advance the field through the National Hospice Social Work Survey and the Social Work Assessment Tool (SWAT).