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All social workers, regardless of practice settings, will inevitably work with clients facing acute or long-term situations involving life-limiting illness, dying, death, grief, and bereavement.

Using their expertise in working with populations from varying cultures, ages, socioeconomic status, and nontraditional families, social workers help families across the life span in coping with trauma, suicide, and death, and must be prepared to assess such needs and intervene appropriately.

Social work practice settings addressing palliative and end of life care include health and mental health agencies, hospitals, hospices, home care, nursing homes, day care and senior centers, schools, courts, child welfare and family service agencies, correctional systems, agencies serving immigrants and refugees, substance abuse programs, and employee assistance programs. Thus, social work is a broadly based profession that can meet the needs of individuals and families affected by life-limiting illness and end of life issues.

Social workers are challenged to provide expertise and skill in direct services to clients and their families. At the same time, they have the opportunity to influence a range of professionals, consumers, and laypersons regarding life-limiting illness, care of the dying, and the bereaved. The need for social workers trained and skilled in working with palliative and end of life care situations has increased, because of advancements in medical technology, rising rates of chronic illness, increasing number of elderly people, and longer life spans.

Palliative and end of life care is a growing area of practice, and social workers may feel unprepared to deal with the complex issues it
encompasses (Csikai & Raymer 2003; Christ & Sormanti, 1999). These standards are designed to enhance social workers’ awareness of the skills, knowledge, values, methods, and sensitivities needed to work effectively with clients, families, health care providers, and the community when working in end of life situations.

About the organization:  During the past decade, consumer advocacy groups, health professional organizations, and government agencies have paid increased attention to the quality and accessibility of care along the continuum of illness and at the end of life. As a result, health care professions are focused on their own ability to train members of their respective disciplines and to contribute to the building of a knowledge base for excellence in care. Social work is no exception.

A 2002 Social Work Leadership Summit on End of Life and Palliative Care addressed the need for a formalized collaborative effort in the social work profession that focuses on palliative and end of life care. During this meeting, participants designed an agenda for the profession to improve care and to elevate social work’s role and contributions in this arena (Project on Death in America, 2002).

Building on this foundation, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) has developed Standards for Social Work Practice in Palliative and End of Life Care, a useful practice tool for social workers. The standards reflect core elements of social work functions in palliative and end of life care and professional social work practice, and are targeted toward social workers practicing in various settings dealing with these issues. For many practicing social workers in palliative and end of life care, these standards reinforce current practices. For others, they provide an objective to achieve and guidelines to assist in practice.