Preparing Family Caregivers for the Death of a Loved One: Implications for Hospital Social Workers

Providing care to a seriously ill loved one at end of life is very difficult. Many family caregivers, however, are not prepared for the death and may suffer more psychological morbidity as a result. Although the scope of social workers' practice makes them ideal professionals to work with caregivers, there is little research about the role they play in preparing caregivers for the death. Focus groups and semistructured interviews conducted with caregivers of terminally ill patients revealed that hospital social workers were not generally perceived as helpful in preparing them for the death. Caregivers reported many unmet needs for which social workers' expertise would have been invaluable—i.e., needs for better communication with health care providers, psychosocial support, and accessing resources. Future work should be directed to verifying our findings and determining how to overcome barriers that prevent hospital social workers from preparing caregivers for the death of a loved one.