Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care最新文献

Trust is a key factor in achieving a good death. However, few studies have focused on factors that help patients with terminal cancer establish trusting relationships with their palliative care doctors. This exploratory qualitative study, conducted in Japan, was designed to identify factors related to terminal cancer patients' trust in their doctors. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 caregivers and grounded theory was the research approach chosen to guide this study. The data revealed seven factors related to the trust to palliative care doctors, including caring attitude, symptom management, courteous and specific explanations, long-term involvement in the patient's care, being faced with inevitable death, good impression of the institution, and referral by a trusted doctor. These factors were categorized into three main themes: [1] palliative care doctors, [2] patients with terminal cancer, and [3] professional reputation. There is potential for improving end-of-life experiences through understanding and implementing interventions to ensure trust identified by these caregivers.

By the time they leave high school, 17% of adolescents will have experienced the suicide death of a friend, peer, or classmate. While some will be unaffected or experience a brief period of distress following the death, for others the death will cause significant disruption and distress, even increasing their risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. It is essential for social workers to be able to support at-risk adolescents after this type of loss. To do this, it is critical to understand the ways that adolescents experience the death, grieve, and recover from the loss. This qualitative study explored adolescents' experiences with grief and loss following an adolescent suicide death in the United States. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with young adults (N = 13) who had been exposed to the suicide death of a peer, classmate, or friend while in high school examined themes about their processing of the death, yielding four themes about sense-making and making meaning about the death. Implications for social workers, schools, and suicide postvention researchers are identified and discussed.

Coexisting serious illness and posttraumatic stress place hospitalized individuals at risk for complex pain, anxiety, and retraumatization. Hospital palliative care social workers increasingly recognize the value of trauma-informed care (TIC) for reducing harm in the inpatient setting. Despite this recognition, there is limited operationalization of TIC principles for inpatient interventions. This paper integrates each TIC principle with inpatient psychosocial interventions to advance trauma-informed competencies among inpatient palliative care social workers and to provide a foundation for future TIC implementation research.

Parents who have a baby receiving care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) likely all experience emotional distress and are at elevated risk of experiencing trauma. The NICU environment is a potential source of traumatic stress for parents and often the risk for neonatal death is substantial. While the stressors facing parents are considerable, the effects can be minimized through implementation of trauma-informed care. The Family Guidance Tool was developed to help parents and healthcare professionals in a NICU setting utilize a strengths-based approach to create an atmosphere of mutual trust and understanding while encouraging the family to be the guide. This practical tool shows promise to mitigate stress often experienced by parents in a NICU setting.