Family-centered care: a resource for social work in end-of-life and palliative care.
Recent trends in medicine reflect an attempt to be more patient-centered and while this is progress from the disease- or provider- focused model familiar in healthcare, the experiences and contributions of family as caregivers continue to be overlooked in some settings. The family-centered care model, developed most notably in pediatrics, but emerging in HIV, cancer, and aging, is presented as a resource to increase family involvement at the end of life. In this paper, family-centered care is defined, caregiving trends including support needs of formal and informal caregivers are discussed, and barriers to family-centered services are identified. Reintroducing family into the focus of care at the end of life is the primary goal of this paper. The family- centered model of care offers an appropriate framework for understanding the value of family in end-of-life care and fits well with social work perspectives that understand individuals in the context of their family system and greater environment.
Kovacs
Pamela J
PJ
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work, Richmond, VA 23284-2027, USA. pjkovacs@vcu.edu
Bellin
Melissa Hayden
MH
Fauri
David P
DP
D017028:Caregivers; D005190:Family; D006801:Humans; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012947:Social Work / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000458:organization & administration*