By Karen E. Herrick, PhD, LCSW, LMSW, CADC Some of My Grieving Clients, Like the Character in The Sixth Sense, Talk to Dead People Introduction Hallucinations An Archetypal Model of a Ghost Client Stories About Communicating With a Deceased Loved One ...
death and dying
13 Rights of the Bereaved
By Elizabeth J. Clark, PhD, ACSW, MPH Introduction Right #1. Family Expectations Right #2. Compassionate Pronouncement of Death Right #3. Viewing the Body and Grieving Right #4. Adequate and Respectful Professional Care for the Family Right #5. ...
Instant Relief from Grief
By L.B. (LeslieBeth) Wish, Ed.D, MSS Introduction Give Back Stay Connected Cry and Yell Get Inspired Get Help Introduction Grieving is one of life's most unpleasant events. Like falling in love, experiencing grief can make you feel as though you are...
End-of-Life Decisions and Late Adulthood
By Kathy Tedesco, BSW Introduction Religious Beliefs and Advance Directives Changes as We Age Erickson's Theory of Psychosocial Development and Late Adulthood Decision Making How Social Workers Help Introduction Medical evidence has shown us that that...
Hospice Care: Dignity, Comfort and Peace
By Carole Marmell, LMSW, C-SWHC For many people, the word "hospice" means hopelessness, helplessness, giving up. In reality, hospice can also mean dignity, comfort, and peace. When your loved one has been given a terminal diagnosis, with no available treatment and a...
How to Plan for Death and Dying Before a Crisis
By Judith R. Peres, MSW, LCSW-C It may seem as though there is never a good time to talk about death and dying. Often, loved ones are uncomfortable discussing the topic – particularly if they are relatively healthy. Although these conversations are often difficult to...
When the Soldier Doesn’t Return: Help for Families of Downed Warriors
By Dr. L.B. (LeslieBeth) Wish, MSW Sally had been a soldier's wife for twelve years. She endured separations while her husband, Tom, was called to duty, and she toughed it out raising twin boys alone. But after Tom was killed in a roadside bomb in Iraq, Sally doubted...
There’s Hope in Hospice
By Margo W. Steinberg, MSW, LCSW Many families are afraid to begin hospice care when a loved one is terminally ill, based on the fear that the patient will give up hope and die even sooner. This is a definite misconception about hospice. As the worditself shows, there...
Coping with Professional Grief
How do social workers, nurses, physicians, and others cope with our own grief when a client dies?
Death & Dying: How Social Workers Help
Introduction Here are several articles illustrating how social workers help terminally ill individuals and their families. How Social Workers Keep the HOPE Alive in Hospice The Role of Social Work in Hospice and Palliative Care Social Workers and Hospice
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Recent Articles
During the Shutdown, Federal Employees Need Time to Relax and Regroup
As the longest government shutdown in U.S. history lingers, many workers may be wondering how to make ends meet and use the downtime wisely By Faye Beard In the last 50 years, the U.S. government has shut down 23 times, according to the Harvard Kennedy School. At this...
Queer People Should Have Queer Friendships
By Faye Beard Feeling connected may be more important now than ever. For queer people, those connections are potentially life-saving. Last year, the Trevor Project’s U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People showed the link between anti-LGBTQ+...
Surviving Survival Mode
By Faye Beard Flight, fight, freeze and fawn are the body’s common psychological responses to stress, experts say. Survival mode, according to the Mental Health Association in Delaware, is a “prolonged state of stress and is marked by both mental and physical...