The diversity of roles, tasks and education of palliative care social workers in Europe
Background
The taskforce was established beginning of the year 2009.
A report by Andrea Dechamps on the EAPC Pre-Conference Workshop held in Prague on 30 May 2013 can be downloaded HERE.
End of life Care Strategy in UK recommend that care is delivered through close multi-disciplinary and interagency working, partnerships and available networks. We have evidence that the role of specialist social workers has been under threat and yet the evidence from Service users is that they value their interventions. There is also a tendency to see the needs of patients and families in terms of pschological not psychosocial. This belies the knowledge that death and dying are social events. Social Workers basic training about working with families makes them uniquely positioned to see the patient within his family and social networks.
Aims and Objectives
- To offer leadership to social workers in End of Life and Palliative Care across Europe
- To identify the diversity of tasks and roles
- To examine the skills needed
- To complete a white paper prior to taking a more in depth look at specialist education
- To consider the provision of specialist education
- To produce a curriculum for postgraduate education.
Membership
Karl W. Bitschnau
Chair
Dr.phil. and MAS (Palliative Care)
Head of Hospice Vorarlberg
Vice President Hospice Austria
Feldkirch, Austria
Pam Firth
Co-Chair
Independent Consultant in Psychosocial Palliative Care.
International Palliative Care Social Work
click here to contact by email
Steering Committee
- Maria Wasner – Germany
- Jose Van Nus – The Netherlands
- Tiziana Mondin – Italia
- Irene Murphy – Ireland
- Carla Reigada – Portugal
- Petruta Anania – Romania
- Inger Benkel – Sweden
- Marie Mackova – Czech Republic
- Sean Hughes – UK
- Karl Bitschnau – Austria – EAPC Board link
Advisory members
- Susan Cadell – Canada
- Ruth Powazki – USA
Partners
- The Association of Palliative Care Social Workers UK
- St Christophers Hospice UK
- The task force leaders are in touch with palliative care social work groups in USA, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Holland, Portugal, Ireland and Romania.
Milestones
2019 Sept: Commencement of in depth look at the Education needs of Palliative Care Social Work
2019 July: Survey results and analysis published and completed.
2019 May: Meet the Expert session at the World Congress in Berlin. Focus on palliative care social work with the LGBT community
2018 Nov: first draft of the survey is completed. Sent to publisher December 2018
2018 Sept: Czech member of the task force attends the Association of Palliative Care Social Workers Conference
2017 Sept: Pam Firth attended the National Social Work Conference in Czech Republic
2017 May: Survey results being analysed
2017: Parallel session for palliative care social workers at the World Congress in Madrid.
2016 Survey collection
2014 Sept: The draft task force survey looking at the tasks and roles of palliative care social worker is pilot tested at the annual conference of the UK Association of Palliative Care social Workers
2014 Jan: Final Draft of the paper entitled, Core Competencies on Palliative Care Social Work sent to the EAPC Board for consideration. Dr Sean Hughes joins the team to write the white paper.
2013 Nov/Dec: Paper on Tasks and Roles of Palliative Care Social Workers in Europe redraft after consultation with steering group
2013 May: Preconference Workshop on Palliative Care Social Work at the EAPC World Congress in Prague
2012 Jan: Susan Cadell from Canada, external palliative social work consultant to the task force visits Social Workers in Ireland and UK
2011 Nov: Conference on Palliative Care Social Work organised by member of the steering group in Holland
2011 Oct: Meeting of Palliative Care Social Workers from Central and Eastern Europe in Bucharest
2011 June: Meeting in Romania with Palliative Care Social Workers
2011 May: Meet the Expert Session at Lisbon EAPC conference
2010 Aug: Progress in Palliative Care Journal special edition on palliative care social work published. Editors Ruth Powaski, David Oliviere, Pam Firth
2010 July: UK End of Life Care Social Care Strategy published recommending that palliative care social workers become consultants and educators for general social workers. All basic social work training to include knowlege about EoLC
2010 May: Quality Assurance Criteria for Medical Social Workers in Palliative Care published by Swedish Palliative Care Social workers
2009
– Meeting of social workers in Amsterdam with Pam Firth
– EAPC conference “Meet the Expert Social Work Meeting” Vienna
– Decision to apply for a task force in EAPC
– Social Work in End of Life and palliative care: Rieth and Payne published by Policy Press in UK
Publications
Portuguese translation is available to view here Translated from the article first published in the European Journal of Palliative Care, 2014, (21) 6. Kindly reproduced by permission of the publishers of the journal, who retain the copyright. All rights reserved.
Traduzido do artigo publicado pela primeira vez no European Journal of Palliative Care, 2014, (21) 6. Por gentileza, reproduzido com permissão dos editores da revista, que mantêm os direitos autorais. Todos os direitos reservados.
Hughes S, Firth P, Oliviere D. Core competencies for palliative care social work in Europe: an EAPC White Paper-part 2. European Journal of Palliative Care. 2015;22(1):38-44.
Portuguese translation is available to view here Translated from the article first published in the European Journal of Palliative Care, 2015, (22).1 Kindly reproduced by permission of the publishers of the journal, who retain the copyright. All rights reserved.
Traduzido do artigo publicado pela primeira vez no European Journal of Palliative Care, 2015, (22) 1. Por gentileza, reproduzido com permissão dos editores da revista, que mantêm os direitos autorais. Todos os direitos reservados.
EAPC Blog Post (June 19, 2019) APCP Social Work Task Force translates ‘Core competencies for palliative care social work in Europe’ into Portuguese
Bitschnau, K.W., Firth, P. and Wasner, M. (2020) Social work in hospice and palliative care in Europe: Findings from an EAPC survey. Palliative and Supportive Care, pp.1-8. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1478951520000279