S W H P N

The Social Work Leadership Development Awards (SWLDA) encouraged innovative research and training projects that reflect a collaboration between schools of social work and practice sites to advance ongoing development of social work practice, education, and training in the care of the dying. These awards promoted the visibility and prestige of social workers committed to end-of-life care, enhancing their effectiveness as academic leaders, role models, and mentors for future generations of social workers.

Rita Ledesma, PhD
Loss and Bereavement in an American Indian and Alaska Native Community

Rita Ledesma will examine the impact of loss and bereavement in the American Indian and Alaska Native communities of the greater Los Angeles region. She will use qualitative methods with two expert samples: 1) American Indians and Alaska Natives who reside in the community; 2) health and human services providers who work within the American Indian and Alaska Native community. She will establish a council of consultants to review the research protocol and data. Her findings will be used to develop training materials and curricula for social workers and allied health professionals who work with American Indians and Alaska Natives.

California State University–Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA
2003

Nancy Cincotta, MSW
A National Initiative to Unite Social Workers and Families in the Interest of Dying Children

Nancy Cincotta will organize a national network of social work experts in pediatric end-of-life care. Professionals and parents will partner to identify developmentally sensitive interventions, unique challenges, and opportunities to improve pediatric end-of-life care. Cincotta will create a listserv to serve as a virtual community for discussion, problem solving, resource sharing, and consultation for pediatric end-of-life care professionals.

Mount Sinai Medical Center
New York, NY
2003

Gary L. Stein, M.S.W., J.D.

The Excellence in End-of-Life Care Fellowship for Social Workers will develop, pilot, evaluate, and disseminate a model palliative care curriculum for training social workers in working with the elderly and people with disabilities. This collaborative effort will create New Jersey’s first comprehensive initiative to educate social work practitioners in end of life care.

New Jersey Health Decisions
Verona, NJ
2000

Jane Lindberg, LCSW
Social Worker Bereavement Training Program

To respond to an increasing need for bereavement services in three rural central California Counties (Fresno, Madera, and Merced) this program will provide bereavement services and support for the rural poor, especially migrant Hispanic families, living in the small towns dotting the landscape in this agricultural region. Social workers, clergy and health professionals already working with the target population will be trained and assisted in establishing a network of knowledgeable, compassionate support. This pilot project will be a model that can be used nationwide in to improve the care of the dying and bereaved.

Hinds Hospice
Fresno, CA
2001

Sheila R. Enders, MSW
The Design and Implementation of a Handbook for Advance Care Planning and Effective Decision-Making at the End-of-Life in Selected Populations with Low Literacy, Mild Learning Disabilities, or Mild Cognitive Deficits

This handbook will be field tested with female inmate patients at the Central California Women’s Facility and male inmate patients at the California Medical Facility, Vacaville within the California state prison system. Corrections staff at both institutions will be educated about the special concerns of these special needs populations in the corrections setting. The project will create a complimentary educational video to promote understanding of key end-of-life issues and will make the handbook and video available for social workers, nurses, hospice, and skilled nursing facility personnel.

UC Davis Medical Center
Sacramento, CA
2001

Susan Murty, ACSW, MSW, PhD
Developing Social Work Leadership in End-of-Life Services in Rural Communities

This project will train students, faculty, and community partners at the University of Iowa’s School of Social Work to become leaders promoting effective rural social work practice in end-of-life care. Two cohorts of students will be trained as leaders in rural end-of-life care as they progress through the two year curriculum for the master’s degree in social work. They will develop knowledge, skills and values for work with death, dying, and bereavement among individuals and families in rural communities with a focus on rural Latino populations. Community partners and social work faculty will collaborate to develop the curriculum. The project will disseminate models of effective service delivery for rural areas by means of a web site, conference presentations, publications, and workshop presentations.

University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA
2001

Barbara L. Jones, MSW, CSW
Psychosocial Protocol and Training Program for End-of-Life Care for Children with Cancer: A Social Work Curriculum

Most end-of-life care models are designed for adult cases and have little application to pediatrics. This project will identify the current practices and training of social workers with respect to end-of-life care for children with cancer. This study will also examine the end-of-life experiences of families who have suffered the death of a child to cancer, and define what support services families need most. The project will develop a curriculum and training program for pediatric end-of-life care that can be used by schools of social work as well as hospitals and hospices.

Albany, NY
Albany Medical Center
2001

Nancy Contro, L.C.S.W.
Latino Families in Pediatric Palliative Care

Most practitioners acknowledge that the most effective way to care for children is one based upon a family centered approach; however, within the realm of pediatric palliative care, there is almost no literature to guide practitioners. Even more lacking is literature examining the experiences and needs of children and families from non-Anglo cultures. The goals of Latino Families in Pediatric Palliative Care at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital are to enhance understanding and provide meaningful guidance to improve care for Mexican Latino families whose children are seriously ill or dying.

Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital
Palo Alto, CA
2003

Mercedes Bern-Klug, MSW, MA
Psychosocial Concerns at the End of Life for Nursing Home Residents: The Role of Social Work

Little is known about the psychosocial needs of nursing home residents and their families at the end of life. Even less is known about the extent to which nursing home social workers are helping to meet these needs. This project will document psychosocial concerns of dying residents and their families to better understand the role of the nursing home social worker regarding end-of-life care. Findings will be used to call attention to the unmet psychosocial concerns of nursing home residents and families, and to help shape the on-going debate about the role of the nursing home social worker.

Center on Aging
Kansas City, KS
2001

Shirley Otis-Green, MSW, LCSW, ACSW
Proyecto de Transiciones: Enhancing End of Life and Bereavement Support Services for Latinos within a Cancer Center Setting

Despite the high percentage of Latinos who reside in Los Angeles County, there are presently no integrated, Spanish-speaking end-of-life and bereavement support services. This demonstration project will develop a community partnership model appropriate for use in cancer centers nationwide. Findings from focus groups made up of the dying, family caregivers and the bereaved will be used to develop and refine the structure of a bereavement support group (Reflexiones) and a general cancer group (Compartiendo Esperanza). This demonstration project will explore the use of a community partnership model to determined applicability to other cancer center sites. Findings will also be useful for the development of culturally relevant social work interventions with other underserved groups.

City of Hope National Medical Center
Duarte, CA
2001

Richard B. Francoeur, PhD
Palliative Care in an Inner-City Minority Population: The Impacts of Chronic Disease, Material Deprivation, and Financial Burden on Control of Pain and Symptoms, Biopsychosocial Outcomes, and Service Needs

Material and economic deprivation, especially acute in minority and underserved populations, exacerbate patient and family barriers to full assessment and compliance with treatment for pain and symptoms, thus eroding well-being and quality-of-life. Data collected will permit comparisons across subgroups of patients receiving palliative care for various illnesses. The project will determine whether patients who experience material deprivation and/or financial burden are more likely to endure uncontrolled pain and experience unmet service needs. The project seeks to determine whether material deprivation and financial burden interact simultaneously with other important factors, or follow them in sequence.

Columbia University
New York, NY
2001

Sherri Weisenfluh, LCSW
The Kentucky Project, Enhancing End-of-Life Care: A social work manual for students and practitioners

Kentucky has few exemplary models for social work education and intervention methods. This project will create a statewide partnership of committed educators and service providers that will cooperate on a strategy to address the scarcity of graduate social workers trained in end-of-life care, and will develop and disseminate a culturally sensitive training manual to students and social work practitioners throughout the state.

Hospice of the Bluegrass
Lexington, KY
2001

Bonnie Shultz, M.S.W., L.I.C.S.W.
Pediatric Palliative Care Education for Social Workers

Children’s Hospital will implement a program to educate and organize networks of providers to improve palliative care for children. Children’s Hospital’s Palliative Care Consulting Service will develop a curriculum to educate social workers and other professionals about palliative care, communication, ethics, organizational change, and leadership. Educational conferences will lead to increased competency of social workers in the delivery of palliative care, increased ability of social workers to initiate palliative care and coordinate care for children with life-limiting conditions, and as a result, an increased number of children benefiting from palliative care. The program dovetails with Children’s Hospital’s mission to provide education to healthcare professionals, to advocate for children, and to improve the health and well-being of children.

Children’s Hospital Foundation
Seattle, WA
2002

Susan Taylor-Brown, M.P.H., A.C.S.W., Ph.D.

The Greater Rochester Collaborative MSW Program, Community Health Network (a medical facility for HIV-infected adults) and the Double “H” Ranch (a camp funded by the Paul Newman Foundation for individuals with chronic illness) will form a consortium known as Family Unity. A rich series of learning opportunities delivered at the outpatient treatment facility, Community Health Network, and the Family Unity Camp will improve social work students’, practitioners’ and educators’ ability to work with families experiencing death and loss related to HIV/AIDS. Learning will be enhanced through participation in an intensive camp experience with these families.

Greater Rochester Collaborative MSW Program
Nazareth College–SUNY College at Brockport
Pittsford, NY
2000

David Browning, M.S.W.
Developing a Pediatric End-of-Life Care Curriculum for Social Workers

David Browning will develop a curriculum on child and family-centered end-of-life care for master’s level social workers. The curriculum will provide social workers with the theoretical foundation, clinical expertise, and resources to provide optimal pediatric palliative care. The program includes facilitator’s guides for educating social workers in the following six areas: engaging with children and families; relieving pain and other symptoms; improving communication and strengthening relationships; responding to suffering and bereavement; sharing decision-making; and establishing continuity of care.

Center for Applied Ethics & Professional Practice
Newton, MA
2003

Karen Bullock, Ph.D.
Resource Enrichment Center

Karen Bullock will create an online Resource Enrichment Center Project at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, enabling the school to provide continuing education for practitioners and graduate students. The online resource center will also facilitate collaboration between the School of Social Work and practice sites that might not otherwise have access to up-to-date research on care for the dying and bereaved.

University of Connecticut
West Hartford, CT
2003

Elizabeth J. Clark, Ph.D., A.C.S.W., N.A.S.W.
Building Social Work Practice and Policy Competencies in End-of-Life Care

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is the largest professional organization for social workers in the world, and brings important institutional resources to shape both the public policy and social work practice related to the care of the dying. NASW Executive Director Elizabeth Clark has the opportunity to guide program development and mobilization within the social work profession to help transform health care systems to a more humane approach to death. Dr. Clark will advance the role and competency of social workers in end-of-life care through the development of practice standards, communication, and continuing education.

National Association of Social Workers
Washington, DC
2003

Aloen Townsend, Ph.D.
Family Assessment Collaboration to Enhance End-of-Life Support

Families are an essential source of support for most adults facing death and, along with the terminally-ill individual, the focus of hospice and palliative care services. The family, especially family caregivers, can have a major impact on the patient’s quality of life and interactions with service providers. The goal of Aloen Townsend’s project is to improve end-of-life care for patients by improving the assessment of family caregivers’ needs. The project is designed to address a critical gap: the lack of clinically relevant and scientifically sound measures for assessing family caregiver strain near the end of life.

Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
Cleveland, OH
2003

Terry Altilio, A.C.S.W.

This project is a collaboration between social work and the multidisciplinary staff of a major Palliative Care Center to create a six month social work fellowship program. A list serve will be developed and maintained as well as specific teaching modules on topics such as pain and symptom management and principles of palliative and end-of-life care for social work that can be accessed through the internet.

Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care
Beth Israel Health Care System
New York, NY
2000

Elizabeth Mayfield Arnold, M.S.W., Ph.D.

This research is a collaborative project between the school of Social Work at UNC–CH and Hospice for the Carolinas. Dr. Arnold will conduct a survey of hospice and health care social workers to examine social workers’ attitudes, knowledge, and values concerning assisted dying. Findings will be used to develop training to improve social work intervention with those at the end of life who have unmet needs and/or are considering hastening their death.

School of Social Work
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life
Chapel Hill and Durham, NC
2000

Joan Berzoff, Ed.D., M.S.W.

This project will develop a certificate program in end-of-life care for post-master’s level social workers working with terminally ill patients and their families in hospitals, nursing homes, and hospices. The program will include development of an innovative continuing education curriculum and textbook, which will serve as an educational resource for social workers throughout the United States.

Smith College School for Social Work
Northampton, MA
2000

Susan Blacker, M.S.W., L.C.S.W-C.

This program will develop and offer an innovative training course to meet the continuing education needs of social workers practicing in the arena of end of life care and will create a post-master’s training opportunity to encourage specialization. It will also establish a statewide network of social workers who will be trained to serve as role models in educating peers about the psychosocial needs of individuals and families facing life-threatening illness.

Johns Hopkins Oncology Center
Baltimore, MD
2000

Iris Cohen, M.S.W., A.C.S.W., L.I.C.S.W.

The Multidisciplinary Care Tools Program trains social workers and medical staff together in multidisciplinary teamwork and family conferencing skills. The program, which has training components for graduate students and early postgraduates as well as advanced professionals, is designed to educate social workers to be role models and leaders within interdisciplinary teams and across treatment sites.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Boston, MA
2000

Barbara Dane, Ph.D.

This project aims to improve postgraduate training for area social workers by convening 11 agency-based social work experts to work with faculty members at the NYU-Ehrenkranz School of Social Work on the design of a new palliative care curriculum. The curriculum will pay particular attention to pain management and ways of addressing spirituality and cross-cultural issues in various service settings.

Ehrenkranz School of Social Work at New York University
New York, NY
2000

Jim Keresztury, L.C.S.W., M.S.W., M.B.A.

This project will establish a statewide advisory network, comprised of social work educators and practitioners, to develop an extensive survey tool that will examine the educational needs of social workers about end of life issues. A new curriculum will be developed to address these gaps in knowledge and will be implemented in graduate and postgraduate social work education throughout the state.

Center for Health Ethics and Law
Morgantown, WV
2000

Mary Sormanti, M.S.W., Ph.D.

This project involves the development, implementation, and evaluation of telephone support groups for cancer patients and their families during the dying process. Evaluation of these groups will provide important information about their efficacy as innovative and cost-effective interventions and will serve as models for measurement of new technologies in social work programs.

Columbia University School of Social Work
New York, NY
2000

Margo Okazawa-Rey, M.S.S.S., Ed.D., and Norma del Rio, M.S.W.

This project combines a grassroots program in Northern California for minority and disadvantaged terminally ill individuals with the San Francisco State Multicultural Institute. Project goals are to 1) develop cross-cultural/cross ethnic assessment guidelines for the terminally ill and bereaved; 2) design and implement a curriculum for graduate social work students that integrates end-of-life care and multiculturalism and 3) test the application of available measures of professional cultural competency developed for other areas to end-of-life care.

Institute for Multicultural Research and Social Work Practice
San Francisco State University
San Francisco, CA
2000

John F. Linder, L.C.S.W.

Through development of a statewide coalition of Schools of Social Work and Schools of Theology and related field training agencies, this project will develop a highly interactive graduate level “end-of-life care” course that will be offered to social work, divinity, and religious studies students at California State University, Sacramento, and at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU)/UC Berkeley, in academic year 2001/02.

UC Davis Cancer Center
Sacramento, CA
2000

W. June Simmons, M.S.W.

A regional coalition of agencies and schools, developed by the Geriatric Social Work Education Consortium and the Partners in Care Foundation is creating a new model of integrated end-of-life care with older adults in social work field and academic training in California. This project will influence social work EOL care national graduate education programming through shaping optimal practice standards and developing a base for education of future social work leadership in EOL care.

Partners in Care Foundation
Burbank, CA
2000

Katherine Walsh-Burke, M.S.W., Ph.D.

Dr. Katherine Walsh-Burke will develop an internet-based continuing education program for social workers affiliated with the 1000-member Association of Oncology Social Work, Hospice Social Workers and related social work organizations. The program will offer courses that include essential theories and skills for social workers, program administrators and supervisors engaged in providing end-of-life care.

Association of Oncology Social Work
Springfield College School of Social Work
Springfield, MA
2000

David A. Cherin, M.S.W., Ph.D.
University of Washington’s School of Social Work End-of-Life Care Knowledge Institute

In this intensive summer research workshop program for social workers and other health professionals, participants will design research and demonstration projects to be carried out in their home institutions. Students will develop a strong conceptual and applied background in palliative care services, empowering them to assume a strong institutional role in the delivery of end-of-life care practice models.

School of Social Work
University of Washington
Seattle, WA
2001

Amanda Sutton CSW, BCD, and Yvette Colon, MSW, ACSW
The End-of-Life Internet Forum

This teaching model will use the Internet to provide focused training in end-of-life care to master’s level graduate students and social work professionals. Participating students will be trained to provide informed and sensitive services to patients and their families during the end of life. This “virtual community” of students and professionals will be an ongoing forum for discussion, information sharing, and mutual support. Evaluation results will be used to improve the program in subsequent years, and to measure the efficacy of interactive online education as a training modality for social work students. Evaluation results will also be widely disseminated to other professionals and educators in the field, particularly those with a special interest in caring for the dying.

New York, NY
Cancer Care, Inc.
2001

Ellen L Csikai, MSW, MPH PhD, and Mary Raymer, MSW, ACSW
The Social Work End-of-Life Care Educational Program (SWEEP): A National Initiative

This project will use a national survey of health care workers in various settings to assess current educational preparation in end-of-life care and identify barriers to effective social work intervention. Survey results will contribute to the development of an end-of-life care curriculum that will provide knowledge and skills necessary for social workers to be able to handle end-of-life care situations effectively, sensitively, and ethically. This curriculum will be widely available through a “train-the-trainers” program of continuing end-of-life care education for social workers in a variety of fields.

School of Social Work, Stephen F. Austin State University
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
Nacogdoches, TX, and Williamsburg, MI
2001

Judith Dobrof, DSW
Caregivers and Professionals Partnership: Assessing a Structured Support Program

This project will assess the impact of the Caregivers and Professionals Partnership (CAPP), a structured support program for family caregivers of chronically, seriously, and terminally-ill adults. CAPP is an interdisciplinary, replicable program to strengthen and sustain the Mount Sinai Hospital and affiliate institutions’ responsiveness to the role and needs of family caregivers of adults. The study will use existing data on the CAPP Caregivers Resource Center and from CAPP’s performance improvement initiative to explore CAPP’s effect on family caregiver outcomes. The project will demonstrate CAPP’s value as a model support program for family caregivers and enhance social work’s leadership in contributing to a critically important area of research.

New York, NY
Department of Social Work Services
The Mount Sinai School of Medicine
2001

Betty J. Kramer, PhD
Strengthening Social Work Education to Improve End-of-Life Care

Although social workers have important practice roles supporting families and individuals coping with terminal illness, grief, loss, and bereavement in a variety of settings, educational gaps often leave them ill-prepared to competently fulfill these roles. This project will develop end-of-life content guidelines for the social work profession, building upon the current standards used by medicine and nursing; to use these guidelines to conduct a critical review of the most frequently used textbooks in social work education; and to write a text that addresses some of the gaps identified in this review in order to enhance educational resources available to educators, students, and practitioners.

School of Social Work
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Madison, WI
2001

Bruce A. Paradis, PhD
End-of-Life Care: Birth through Old Age

This project will develop a second year MSW advanced concentration in end-of-life care and strengthen the ties between the Salem State College School of Social Work and the professional social work community. Students will complete a specialized year-long field placement in end-of-life care settings. They will participate in seminars designed to consolidate direct practice skill and to explore innovative service delivery models. Principal faculty members will develop collaborative relationships with the field sites selected for the program and create an advisory committee of social work professionals involved in end-of-life care. An elective course in end-of-life care will be developed and offered via interactive video technology and simulcast to the schools of social work in New England that do not have curriculum in end-of-life care.

Salem State College
Salem, MA
2001

Elizabeth Chaitin, M.S.W., M.A., D.H.C.E.
Interdisciplinary Specialty Team Training in Palliative Care

This project seeks to improve palliative care at the non-university based programs of UPMC Health Systems. Elizabeth Chaitin will develop and implement an educational program providing palliative care training, and will build a highly functioning interdisciplinary care team. Teams will be composed of social workers, nurses and physicians from specialties with significant exposure to end of life care, such as intensive care, neurology, oncology and cardiology services.

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Shady Side
Pittsburgh, PA
2002

Terry A. Wolfer, Ph.D. and Vicki Runnion, M.S.S.W.
Casebook on Death and Dying for Social Work Education

The project will develop 24 decision cases to be published in book form and disseminated via the Internet. The cases will portray the actual experiences of social workers in a wide range of practice settings as they serve clients facing death or bereavement. The cases will pose open-ended, ambiguous dilemmas that require students to use their analytic and critical thinking skills, their knowledge of social work theory and research, and their common sense and collective wisdom to formulate and analyze problems, evaluate possible solutions, and recommend a preferred intervention. The cases and detailed teaching notes will be augmented with a curriculum guide on death and bereavement for social work educators and general instructions for teaching with decision cases.

University of South Carolina Research Foundation
2002