By Gemma Harvey
This is what my university placement co-ordinator said to me when they rang, I knew getting a phone call would mean it would be something different. Within the next few minutes, I was told it was at a Hospice. My mind raced, thinking of the emotional impact it could have; with that in mind I found myself saying, “that sounds good” and organising to meet my practice educator (PE).
Going to the hospice and meeting my PE immediately put me at ease. The hospice was calm and we talked through my previous placement, what skills and knowledge I thought I would need as well as my learning. I also learnt that I would be working in the community team, albeit not with as many visits due to COVID.
I am now half way through my placement and it’s been a steep learning curve, as I have never worked with adults in the social work context. A hospice placement is completely unique, our multi-disciplinary meeting not only consists of, nurses, doctors and consultants but also social workers, spiritual care and art/music therapists. This allows creativity in your work and more freedom to think outside the box. I have a real passion for direct work, I enjoy thinking about what type of work would benefit the service users I am working with. I have found myself using the hot cross bun CBT formulation, feeling thermometers and scaling questions with people. You are genuinely able to take a holistic approach to your work. Through building relationships over time, you have insight into people’s lives, which enables you to really tailor your interventions.
As a student social worker in a hospice, I not only work with patients but also carers who are very overwhelmed. I have had to do research on carer giver stress (Tsai, 2003) and how I can help people manage this, developing my skills in providing space for people to talk. I have learnt most people just need to feel listened to and not alone on their journey. It’sreally installed in me the power of service users feeling heardand advocacy, which can ultimately change the way someone feels.
Like most social work placements, no two days are the same. By employing the holistic approach, I quickly came to know my patients and carers very well. In particular through getting to know carers, I was more equipped to support them throughtheir grief of a loved one dying. Most people experience anticipatory grief (Lindemann, 1944), so by building relationships you can pick up on signs of how they are coping, or if you sense they are getting overwhelmed by phone calls or professional involvement.
I have come accustomed to theories around grief. But these theories stretch way beyond death and grief. They apply to loss as whole, which we all go through regularly in our liveswith physical and emotional loses. As Bowlby suggested attachment and loss are intrinsically linked, it’s the loss of an attachment that results in a grief process (Bowlby, 1958).
I am glad that I said yes when I got the phone call from my placement co-ordinator. People have loss in many areas of their life, not just through friends or family dying. Understanding how this affects people, and how I can support them has provided me with knowledge that I will be able to apply to any area of practice.
References
Attachment and Loss, Death and Dying. Theoretical foundations in Bereavement Counselling: https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/24803_02_Mallon_Ch_01.pdf
Feelings thermometer: https://www.socialemotionalworkshop.com/2019/03/feelings-thermometers/
CBT Formulation: https://accesscbt.co.uk/resources/articles/depression-new-dads/formulation-breaking-problem/
Lindemann (1944) Symptomology and Management of acute Grief: https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/ajp.101.2.141
Scaling Questions: https://www.counsellingconnection.com/index.php/2009/03/30/solution-focused-techniques/#:~:text=Scaling%20questions%20ask%20clients%20to,goals%20and%20monitor%20incremental%20change.
Tsai (2003) A Middle Range theory of Care Giver Stress. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0894318403251789
