Main description:

The Collaborative for Palliative Care ("Collaborative") is a grassroots consortium of public and private organizations that came together in 2005 for the purposes of studying the increasing need for palliative care and the methods for such care. It has grown from a small fledgling group to a membership of over 50 community-based organizations and volunteers dedicated to improving care of the seriously ill through education, research and advocacy. The Collaborative bridges policy, research and practice in its initiatives and vision for the future.

Partners in Palliative Care examines specific areas of concern that the Collaborative has addressed in its education programs and advocacy, as well as the collaborative processes that have been so successful in building community assets. Areas of concentration have been diverse and include advance care planning, relational communication paradigms, community capacity building, the role of culture and spirituality in palliative care, the meaning of pain and suffering for seriously ill individuals, and the ethics of health care costs in palliative and end-of-life systems of care.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life and Palliative Care.

Contents:

1. Introduction Mary Beth Morrissey and Bruce Jennings 2. Building on Community Assets to Improve Palliative and End-of-Life Care Judith Dobrof, Janna C. Heyman, and Reva M. Greenberg 3. Phenomenology of Pain and Suffering at the End of Life: A Humanistic Perspective in Gerontological Health and Social Work Mary Beth Morrissey 4. Narrative Palliative Care: A Method for Building Empathy Patricia Stanley and Marsha Hurst 5. Key Role of Social Work in Effective Communication and Conflict Resolution Process: Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) Program in New York and Shared Medical Decision Making at the End of Life Patricia A. Bomba, Mary Beth Morrissey, and David C. Leven 6. The Influence of Culture on End-of-Life Decision Making Karen Bullock 7. Religion and Spirituality: Assessment and Intervention Kenneth J. Doka 8. Health Care Costs in End-of-Life and Palliative Care: The Quest for Ethical Reform Bruce Jennings and Mary Beth Morrissey