Palliative social work

“Roughly 80% of disease & its consequences have been traced to what are often referred to as the social determinants of health—things like having a living wage, safe housing & neighborhoods, protection from the stresses of violence, poverty, & despair, access to nourishing food & transportation, & being part of a network of supportive family & community... If ours were a logical system, most people working & most of the money in healthcare would be under control of social workers... Our field offers a reminder to medicine of the need to return to its “true north”— with a focus on providing personalized, contextualized care from a whole person perspective. & as healthcare moves from the hospital into the community, our palliative social work colleagues’ commitment to social justice becomes ever more critical. Palliative social workers are essential in furthering this healthcare transformation - whether providing evidence-informed interventions, modeling nuanced communication, advocating for policies that address the social determinants of health, engaging in innovative research, or seeking resources as often what patients need most is food, housing, money, transportation, & human care & support. We have to see & name what is wrong in order to change it. Social workers live in reality & help the rest of us to do so, too…social workers see & engage with this reality alongside our patients & their families, & help the rest of us to do so , too.. It is a great place (reality) to get a handle on the ways in which our health system & society fails the people it is meant to serve—& how social workers never look away.”