Palliative Care in Long-Term Care Facilities

Abstract

Abstract The provision of palliative care in nursing homes is consistent with aims to improve residents’ quality of life, in part by making the setting more person-centered. After discussing long-term care and more specifically nursing home care in the United States, this chapter describes the important role nursing home social workers play in anticipating, assessing, and addressing the palliative care concerns of residents, including social work involvement in palliative psychosocial assessment, care planning, group work, and upholding of resident rights. National Association of Social Workers (NASW) standards for the provision of social work services in long-term care settings are discussed as well as more recent work to articulate social work competencies in this area. The chapter concludes with a call to focus on palliative care in nursing homes as a way to improve the quality of life for all residents.