Social work services as a component of palliative care with terminal cancer patients

This paper describes a social work service to critically ill non-hospitalized cancer patients based upon Heimler's theory and method of Human Social Functioning. Despite severe constraints arising from the physical deterioration and emotional distress of the patients and certain aspects of the treatment setting, efforts were made to validate the effectiveness of the service through pre- and post-intervention measures of patients' moods and single system experiments. The findings indicate that the Heimler method was effective in helping patients overcome their sense of helplessness and distressing emotional reactions to terminal illness. A quality assurance program and a multidisciplinary health care team are proposed as the means of establishing palliative care for terminally ill patients that incorporates social work services.