From Pallium India Newsletter
“It has been an opportunity to practise social work as it is meant to be – empowering, enabling but not afraid to face and challenge conflicts and difficulties both within families and communities but in wider society. A far cry indeed from the care management model that most adult social work has now been reduced to.”
Palliative care social worker Suzy Croft had come into this line some 26 years ago, when the term “palliative care” was unknown. She was part of a multi-professional team that supported people with terminal cancer and their families. Though in the past few years, Suzy faced difficulties while helping her clients in need of support from the state, she found that families and friends remain the greatest support for people with life-threatening or life-limiting conditions.
She feels that “palliative care social work has been a wonderful field in which to work” as it involves working with other professionals, but most of all, because it provides an opportunity to work with a diverse group of patients and their families. Life-threatening and life limiting illnesses are no respecter of class, income, age, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religious belief, immigration status, mental health or learning difficulties. Palliative care social workers offer a wide range of support to patients and families from practical help and advice around income maintenance and debt counselling, help with housing and accessing other services through to advocacy, individual and family support and counselling and help for bereaved adults and children.
Read the full article here.