The Social Employee in Interaction with Terminally ill Patient

Abstract

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study is to show the interaction between a social worker and a terminally ill patient, his family and the environment.

THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The situation of palliative and hospice care patients requires the work of many people who are involved in providing comprehensive assistance. Among those providing support are also social employees. They solve many problems of the patient, his environment, both in home palliative and hospice care for adults and children, and in institutional forms of support. They support their involvement with the hospice psychologist, volunteers and other team members. Their role is noticed by many people from various social circles. 

THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The considerations were based on the chosen subject literature. The relationship between the participation and accompaniment of a social employee in the subsequent stages of the terminally ill patients’ lives and the increase of their quality of life was presented. The role of interdisciplinary care and unconventional approach to satisfying the patient’s needs was also presented. The multi-faceted dimension of the suffering of the client and his/ her relatives.

RESEARCH RESULTS: There is a large relationship between the activities undertaken by a social employee and increasing the quality of life of people who are terminally ill. It is irreplaceable in the case of lonely and elderly people, because it becomes a kind of coordinator of available medical and social assistance. With the development of the palliative and hospice movement, an increasing share of social workers in interdisciplinary hospice care is observed.

CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: An important conclusion can be drawn that social employees fulfill an extremely important role in the palliative and hospice movement. Their participation in this process is certainly an expression of the humanization of medicine.