Accepting the Reality: Social Work and Hospice

Social workers are compassionate professionals who improve the lives of others through guidance, encouragement, and support. Hospice care teams rely on social workers to console and counsel terminal patients and their families.

Hospice promotes quality end-of life care by focusing on patient comfort and emotional support throughout the stages of dying. The hospice social worker helps patients accept the reality of their condition. It’s common for terminally ill patients to suffer from anxiety, grief and depression. Social workers are trained to recognize these conditions and work to alleviate as much mental and emotional anguish for them as possible, there-by enabling the best quality of life in the time they have left.

Hospice social workers help terminal patients:

  • Cope with fear

  • Redirect their anger

  • Work through regret and guilt

  • Process grief

  • Manage anxiety and depression

  • Find peace

Social workers provide support for family members as well. They offer advance planning resources, a shoulder to cry on, and counseling to ease the anxiety that accompanies losing a loved one. They also provide long-term bereavement support through group sessions and individual counseling. Most hospice agencies provide free grief support to family members for a year after their loved has passed.

Do your part this March during National Social Work Month to recognize the invaluable services the social workers in your agency provide every day. Acknowledge the dedication of these professionals committed to helping others be all they can be.

  • Highlight the social workers in your agency throughout the month of March on your social media outlets.

  • Ask a social worker on your staff to write a guest blog for your website about social work and Hospice care.

  • Send Social Work Month greeting cards to the social work professionals who work for and with your agency every day.

  • Provide hospitals in your area with hospice discharge planner brochures to highlight the work of your agency’s social work professionals as you show your support for National Social Work Month.

Visit TAGwebstore.com for all your hospice and home health print media.

February 2015: Get ready to recognize referral sources

March is almost here, which means it’s almost time for one of the most important days of the year in home care: National Doctors Day. Use the day as an opportunity to recognize the physicians in your community and strengthen their relationship with your agency. Call on the doctors in your service area and spread the word about how much your agency appreciates the work they do.

  • Pay doctors a visit they won’t soon forget by educating them on Care Plan Oversight, Transitional Care Management, and the money they could be leaving on the table by not filing for CPO and TCM. An easy way to do this is with our popular CPO and TCM kits, which include brochures, payment calculators, billing guides and quick reference guides to help you show physicians what they could be missing. Find the kits at www.tagwebstore.com/homehealthCPOkit.php and www.tagwebstore.com/transitional-care-management.php.
  • Give doctors heartfelt thanks with products made especially for Doctors Day, and be sure to extend the gesture beyond only your top-referring physicians. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/doctorsday/.
  • Make doctors’ lives a little easier by volunteering to host a free community education class about how to make the most of your doctor visit at a local senior center. Find a ready-made class at www.tagwebstore.com/startupkit-products.php.

While recognizing professionals this month, it’s important not to forget about another important group: social workers. March is National Professional Social Worker Month. Take the time to highlight the work done by this dedicated group of professionals.

  • Deliver thank-you cards and stickers to social workers in your agency and at local hospitals, making sure to call on those who work in your local hospital discharge offices. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/socialwork/.
  • Promote the benefits of social work by distributing social worker-themed mouse pads, which contain a 25-sheet to-do list, at-a-glance calendar, reasons to refer to home health, and the benefits of social workers. Give these to discharge planners at your local hospitals. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/tablet-mousepads.php.

Mark March 24 on your calendar: American Diabetes Alert Day. According to the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet, 25.8 million people in the United States have diabetes – that’s 8.3 percent of the population. Among people age 65 or older, 10.9 million people, or 26.9 percent, have diabetes. Make your agency a champion for diabetes education in your community.