Practitioners who work with clients at the end of their lives face difficult decisions concerning the client's self-determination, the kind of death he or she will have, and the prolongation of life. They must also remain sensitive to the beliefs and needs of family members and the legal, ethical, and spiritual ramifications of the client's death. Featuring twenty-three decision cases based on interviews with professional social workers, this unique volume allows students to wrestle with the often incomplete and conflicting information, ethical issues, and time constraints of actual cases. Instead of offering easy solutions, this book provides detailed accounts that provoke stimulating debates among students, enabling them to confront their own responses, beliefs, and uncertainties to hone their critical thinking and decision making skills for professional practice. *Please note: Teaching Notes for this volume will be available from Electronic Hallway in Spring 2010. To access the Teaching Notes, you must first become a member of the Electronic Hallway. The main Electronic Hallway web page is at https://hallway.org/index.php. To join, click Become a Hallway Member in the Get Involved category or point your browser directly to https://hallway.org/involved/join.php and provide the required information. After your instructor status has been confirmed, you will receive an e-mail granting access to the Electronic Hallway. Once logged on to Electronic Hallway as a member, click Case Search in the Cases and Resources category on themain web page. Enter "death, dying, bereavement" (without the quotation marks) in the search box, select "all of the words" in the drop down menu, and click Submit. The search process will generate a list of Teaching Notes for cases from Dying, Death, and Bereavement in Social Work Practice: Decision Cases for Advanced Practice.

This volume is directed towards professionals who work in the fields concerning death and dying. These professionals must perceive the needs of people with cultural patterns which are different from the "standard and dominant" patterns in the United States and Canada. Accordingly, the book includes illustrative episodes and in-depth presentations of selected "ethnic patterns".; Each of the "ethnic chapters" is written by an author who shares the cultural traditions the chapter describes. Other chapters examine multicultural issues and provide the means for personal reflection on death and dying. There are also two bibliographic sections, one general and one geared towards children. The text is divided into three sections - Cross-Cultural and Personal perspectives, Dying, Death, and Grief Among Selected Ethnic Communities, and Reflections and Conclusions.; The book is aimed at those in the fields of clinical psychology, grief therapy, sociology, nursing, social and health care work.

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Dealing with the social experience of grief, loss and bereavement are challenging areas for everyone, including health and social care practitioners who are often well placed to offer help and support to the bereaved. This book draws together a comprehensive range of worldwide evidence for understanding and supporting the bereaved in a variety of health and social care contexts. It can be used by practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds in both health and social care to gain an appreciation of bereavement and its associated support and care. Additionally, it can be used for personal and professional development by practitioners who want to enhance their own and others’ practice with the bereaved in specific contexts or organisations. The book may also be of value to those undertaking post graduate study who want to gain a wider understanding of the evidence related to bereavement and bereavement care practice in health and social care and may be seeking to add to the body of evidence in this field.

The first text to explore the history, characteristics, and challenges of hospice social work, this volume weaves leading research into an underlying framework for practice and care. A longtime practitioner, Dona J. Reese describes the hospice social work role in assessment and intervention with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and the community, while honestly confronting the personal and professional difficulties of such life-changing work. She introduces a well-tested model of psychosocial and spiritual variables that predict hospice client outcomes, and she advances a social work assessment tool to document their occurrence. Operating at the center of national leaders' coordinated efforts to develop and advance professional organizations and guidelines for end-of-life care, Reese reaches out with support and practice information, helping social workers understand their significance in treating the whole person, contributing to the cultural competence of hospice settings, and claiming a definitive place within the hospice team.

Delivers the collective wisdom of foremost scholars and practitioners in the death and dying movement from its inception to the present. Written by luminaries who have shaped the field, this capstone book distills the collective wisdom of foremost scholars and practitioners who together have nearly a millennium of experience in the death and dying movement. The book bears witness to the evolution of the movement and presents the insights of its pioneers, eyewitnesses, and major contributors past and present. Its chapters address contemporary intellectual, institutional, and practice developments in thanatology: hospice and palliative care; funeral practice; death education; and caring of the dying, suicidal, bereaved, and traumatized. With a breadth and depth found in no other text on death, dying, and bereavement, the book disseminates the thinking of prominent authors William Worden, David Clark, Tony Walter, Robert Neimeyer, Charles Corr, Phyllis Silverman, Betty Davies, Therese A. Rando, Colin Murray Parkes, Kenneth Doka, Allan Kellehear, Sandra Bertman, Stephen Connor, Linda Goldman, Mary Vachon, and others. Their chapters discuss the most significant facets of early development, review important current work, and assess major challenges and hopes for the future in the areas of their expertise. A substantial chronology of important milestones in the contemporary movement introduces the book, frames the chapters to follow, and provides guidance for further, in-depth reading. The book first focuses on the interdisciplinary intellectual achievements that have formed the foundation of the field of thanatology. The section on institutional innovations encompasses contributions in hospice and palliative care of the dying and their families; funeral service; and death education. The section on practices addresses approaches to counseling and providing support for individuals, families, and communities on issues related to dying, bereavement, suicide, trauma, disaster, and caregiving. An Afterword identifies challenges and looks toward future developments that promise to sustain, further enrich, and strengthen the movement. KEY FEATURES: Distills the wisdom of pioneers in and major contributors to the contemporary death, dying, and bereavement movement Includes living witness accounts of the movement's evolution and important milestones Presents the best contemporary thinking in thanatology Describes contemporary institutional developments in hospice and palliative care, funeral practice, and death education Illuminates best practices in care of the dying, suicidal, bereaved, and traumatized

`This second edition, which has also been edited by Samson Katz, utilizes around half of the original text, of which a significant portions has been revised and updated. The remainder comprises new material reflecting both the changes in attitudes generally towards death and dying, and also designed to meet the needs of students undertaking the revised curriculum of the K260. This book will stimulate thinking and challenge the personal views of both academics and those in practice. ...[A] valuable tool for both those new to the area of palliative and cancer care and those experienced professionals searching for a new angle on several key topics in relation to ethical issues occurring in this speciality... [A]n excellent balance of theoretical contents and moving prose... [T]his book is directed towards all professionals working in health and social care. ...This book is a must for pre-registration students wishing to gain greater understanding of the psychosocial issues faced by those with a terminal illness and their significant others' - Nurse Education Today The fully revised and updated edition of this bestselling collection combines academic research with professional and personal reflections. Death, Dying and Bereavement addresses both the practical and the more metaphysical aspects of death. Topics such as new methods of pain relief, guidelines for breaking bad news, and current attitudes to euthanasia are considered, while the mystery of death and its wider implications are also explored. A highly distinctive interdisciplinary approach is adopted, including perspectives from literature, theology, sociology and psychology. There are wide-ranging contributions from those who come into professional contact with death and bereavement - doctors, nurses, social workers and councellors. In addition there are more intimate personal accounts from carers and from bereaved people. Death, Dying and Bereavement is the Course Reader for The Open University course Death and Dying, which is offered as part of The Open University Dilpoma in Health and Social Welfare. Praise for the First Edition: `The book does give a broad overview of many of the issues around death, dying and bereavement. It raises the reader's awareness and encourages deeper investigation at every level. It is easy to reda and therefore accessible to a wide audience' - Changes `Provides a richly woven tapestry of personal, professional and literary accounts of death, dying and bereavement' - Health Psychology Update `Offers a unique collection of fascinating information, research, stories, poems and personal reflections. It is unusual to experience such a diversity of writings in one book' - Nursing Times `It brings together the knowledge and skills from a multi-occupational group and thereby offers and opportunity, to whoever reads it, to enable better experiences for those who are dying and bereaved' - Journal of Interprofessional Care `For those trying to help the dying and bereaved, this volume will inspire and move you as much as it will inform and guide your work' - Bereavement Care `Provides a unique overview, and in many areas, penetrating insights into various aspects of death, dying and bereavement. One of it's major strengths is that it brings together a wide and varied discourse on death across cultures and through time' - British Journal of Sociology