Partners in palliative care - enhancing ethics in care at the end-of-life

Introduction; Building on community assets to improve palliative and end-of-life care; Phenomenology of pain and suffering at the end-of-life: a humanistic perspective in gerontological health and social work; Narrative palliative care : a method for building empathy; Key role of social work in effective communication and conflict resolution process: medical orders for life-sustaining treatment (MOLST) program in New York and shared medical decision making at the end of life; The influence of culture on end-of-life decision making; Religion and spirituality : assessment and intervention; Health care costs in end-of-life palliative care : the quest for ethical reform

Partners in Palliative Care examines specific areas of concern that the Collaborative has addressed in its education programs and advocacy, as well as the collaborative processes that have been so successful in building community assets. Areas of concentration have been diverse and include advance care planning, relational communication paradigms, community capacity building, the role of culture and spirituality in palliative care, the meaning of pain and suffering for seriously ill individuals, and the ethics of health care costs in palliative and end-of-life systems of care.