Palliative Care

The social worker is a vital member of the team providing compassionate, patient and family-centered care that relieves suffering and improves quality of life for those with serious or chronic illness.

In 2008, while 43% of California hospitals had palliative care programs, only 22% of public hospitals (four) had them. Recognizing that a lack of palliative care services in public hospitals impedes appropriate care for underserved populations, CHCF launched a five-year initiative to introduce or expand palliative care in the state’s 17 acute care public hospitals.

The human capacity to deny reality is one of our defining characteristics.

Without denial, the American settlers might have aborted their westward trek somewhere around Pittsburgh; Steve Jobs might have thrown up his hands after the demise of the Lisa; and Martin Luther King’s famous speech might have been entitled, “I Have a Strategic Plan and a Draft Budget.”

Yet when danger or failure is just around the corner, denial can be dysfunctional (see Karl Rove on Fox News), even suicidal (see climate change).

The 80-year-old cancer patient wanted to return to his Florida home to die, but the oncologist at the 400-staffed-bed Sarasota Memorial Hospital strongly suggested hormone treatment that required a longer hospital stay.