To mark the start of Palliative Care week in Ireland, we will hold this free webinar to demonstrate the breadth of the role of specialist palliative care social workers. The demand for palliative care is growing nationally and internationally. Many social workers will support people with palliative care needs in a variety of settings. Some of these people will need the support of specialist palliative care.

With the Hospice and Palliative Care Social Workers (HPCSW) Group, we will launch the recently developed position paper The Role of Social Work in Specialist Palliative Care. We will also launch the updated Guidance for Bereavement Support provided by Specialist Palliative Care Social Workers in Ireland  (2^nd edition).

By the end of the webinar, social workers will:

• have a more in-depth knowledge of the role of social work in specialist palliative care,
• develop a better understanding of the many aspects of practice from a social work perspective,
• consider the themes of grief and loss,
• consider the bereavement support needs of patients and their families as part of a continuum of care from illness into bereavement.

Programme

12.30  Welcome from Caroline Strong (IASW COO)

12.35  Background and Context Niamh Finucane (Hospice and Palliative Care Social Workers Group (HPCSW)

12.40  The Role of Social Work in Specialist Palliative Care (Naoise Waldron)

1.00    Guidance for Bereavement Support (Estelle McGinley)

1.15    Q&A

1.30    Close

Speaker Biographies

Niamh Finucane is the Bereavement Co-ordinator, St. Francis Hospice Dublin. She has worked there for 20 years, initially as a Senior Social Worker on the Community Palliative Care Team and then in the In-patient unit, spending over 10 years managing the social work and bereavement services until she moved into her current role. Niamh also has previous experience in Child Welfare & Child Protection work, fostering and Medical Social Work in an acute hospital setting. 

Niamh has a keen interest in palliative care. She has written multiple articles and presented on the role of social work in palliative care, with a particular interest in bereavement. She lectures on the MSc in Palliative care and MSc in Social Work. She is  involved in national projects on the development of palliative care and bereavement services. 

Estelle McGinley works as a Senior Social Worker in Milford Care Centre Limerick in Palliative Care and bereavement support. She has worked in this area for 25 years and has considerable experience of supporting bereaved adults and children. Her particular interests are working with grieving children and supporting bereaved parents after the death of a child. Estelle has completed a Masters in Bereavement Studies. She is a member of the Advisory Panel of the Irish Childhood Bereavement Network, and a Senior facilitator on the Children and Loss Programme at Irish Hospice Foundation.

Naoise Waldron is a Senior Medical Social Worker at Our Lady’s Hospice and Care Services, working in Palliative Care. She is a graduate of UCD, where she qualified with a MSocSc (Social Work) in 2008 and has worked in areas including child protection, mental health, and medical social work in acute hospital settings. Naoise has a keen interest in palliative care and bereavement, and has completed the PGDip in Loss and Bereavement and Professional Certificate in Children and Loss through RCSI/IHF, and is currently a student on the PGDip in Palliative Care in Queen’s University Belfast.