Critical Palliative Care Skills for Social Workers and Counselors

Every day social workers and counselors work with clients whose long-term suffering, whether from physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual distress, is deeply affecting their quality of life. Families and loved ones may be affected as well.

Infuse your talent reserves with new or refreshed knowledge from the CSU Shiley Institute for Palliative Care’s fully online course, Critical Skills for Social Workers and Counselors. Conducted in a cohort, students enrolled in this course are led by an expert instructor, and have the opportunity to meet and interact with peers and colleagues from all over the nation and in widely diverse practice settings.

What You’ll Learn Effectively support individuals experiencing serious or chronic illness Discuss strategies in working with a multidisciplinary care team. Use critical thinking and positive problem solving in the context of palliative care Perform palliative psychosocial assessments Discuss the social worker and counselor’s contributions to pain and symptom management Develop person-centered palliative care plans Improve communications between the patient/family and care team Assist in the development of a comprehensive care treatment plans Use cutting edge therapeutic techniques to help patients and families throughout the illness continuum. Navigate common ethical concerns in working with death and dying

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Course Schedule

This Instructor-led, online course allows you to work on your own schedule each week with recorded lectures, readings, discussions, case studies, and quizzes. Time commitment should be approximately 6-8 hours per week. 

Week 1: Care Provision – Exploration of types of care provision and the teams that deliver care. What kind of team do you work in?

Week 2: Critical Thinking – Critical thinking, self-examination, self-awareness. What level of ambiguity are you comfortable with? What are your firm beliefs? How do these help or hinder your work?

Week 3: Positive Problem Solving – Using problem solving skills not only with patients but within your work team and administrative leaders. Looking at role delineation, boundaries and flexibility, assertiveness, going outside our comfort zone.

Week 4: Assessment – This is at the foundation of social work practice. How is the assessment process altered when chronic illness, depression, and lack of support systems underpins the client’s situation?

Week 5: Counseling Skills and Motivational Interviewing – Moving from emotional support to action plans and targeted clinical solutions.

Week 6: Mindfulness and Person-Centered Plans – Understanding automatic thoughts, changing negative thoughts to positive thoughts. How do family dynamics come into play?

Week 7: Our Role in Pain and Symptom Management – How Social Workers and Counselors can impact symptoms. Looking at Scope of Practice and working within an interdisciplinary model.

Week 8: Advances in Death, Dying, Grief and Loss – Understanding grief and loss starts at the onset of illness. Assessing needs and using techniques for resilience and meaning making in the face of loss.

Completion and Refunds  

In order to complete this course and obtain a certificate, you must view the course in its entirety, correctly answer all case studies and quiz/test questions (as appropriate) and complete the evaluation. For instructor-led courses, to quality for a refund, you must request your cancellation in writing at least five (5) business days prior to the start of the course. If approved, there will be a $35 administrative fee charged to process the refund.