Oxford Textbook of Palliative Social Work

Terry Altilio, MSW, ACSW, LCSW is Coordinator of Social Work for the Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. In addition to direct work with patients and families, she has published and lectured nationally and internationally on topics such as pain management, ethics, palliative care and psychosocial issues in end-of-life care. She received a Project on Death in America Social Work Leadership award to establish a social work post graduate fellowship in palliative care and the Social Work Network in End-of-Life and Palliative Care, an email discussion group which currently networks over 500 social workers.Shirley Otis-Green, MSW, ACSW, LCSW, OSW-C is a licensed clinical social worker and Senior Research Specialist in Nursing Research and Education at the City of Hope in Duarte, California. Her clinical work, research, presentations and publications focus on transdisciplinary palliative care and integrated symptom management with a special emphasis on underserved populations. Shirley is the Principal Investigator of two National Cancer Institute-funded grants, and developed the nationally recognized Promoting Excellence in Pain Management and Palliative Care for Social Workers course. She received a Social Work Leadership Award from the Project on Death in America and is a Mayday Pain and Society Fellow.

The Oxford Textbook of Palliative Social Work is an excellent resource for all clinicians who have the privilege of caring for seriously ill patients and their families. We recommend it as a necessary resource for every palliative care and hospice team, and we suggest it as an important reference for all social workers and social work trainees practicing in health care. Additionally, the book provides valuable information for leaders of health care systems and for policy makers who are preparing to face the challenge of creating large-scale interventions to meet the needs of this patient population.

• HISTORICAL CONTEXT; SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE: SETTING-SPECIFIC; SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE: SCREENING, ASSESSMENT & INTERVENTION; POPULATION-SPECIFIC PRACTICE; COLLABORATIONS IN PALLIATIVE CARE; PALLIATIVE SOCIAL WORK: REGIONAL VOICES FROM A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE; ETHICS; PROFESSIONAL ISSUES; EPILOGUE: LESSONS LEARNED; APPENDIX: INDEX OF PATIENT NARRATIVES; INDEX