Social Work Practice in Pediatric Palliative and End-of-Life Care : Challenges and Opportunities

As an essential and emerging practice, Pediatric palliative care seeks to prevent and relieve suffering for children with life-threatening conditions. Palliative care teams are composed of providers of various disciplines, including social workers, who collaborate to address the medical, social-emotional, and spiritual needs of the child, and their families. Social workers are especially accustomed to interdisciplinary care and may counsel, provide resources, facilitate communication, and promote person- and family-centered practices that are the basis of effective pediatric palliative care. This book presents practice strategies, experiential knowledge, and research related to practicing in collaborative teams, ICU settings, and hospice. It also presents research that is informed by the perceptions and perspectives of bereaved parents, parents who have suffered a stillbirth, and parent caregivers of children with life-limiting illness. This book highlights the unique role social workers play, within care teams and in relationship with children who have life-limiting illness, and their families. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care.