Archive

  Palliative Care, Social Work and Services Users: Making Life Easier
  Peter Beresford, Lesley Adshead and Suzy Croft,
  Jessica Kingsley Publishers
  ISBN: 9781843104650,
  £22.99

  STAR RATING: 3/5

The basic message of this book is that while many service users have negative views of social work, the majority value their experience of specialist palliative care social workers, writes Kelvin Karim.

It is based upon a three-year national research project aimed at finding out service user perspectives about specialist palliative care social work.

The qualitative study using a grounded theory approach involved interviews with 111 participants, including 52 with life-threatening illnesses: no mean feat in an area in which sample attrition is often a major problem for researchers.

An appendix discusses how service users were involved in designing the research.

It is written in a straightforward and understandable style and likely to be an invaluable resource for social work professionals and trainees working within specialist palliative care.

Others may be more content to obtain a library copy or read a summary of the research study findings on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website.

Kelvin Karim is TB clinical nurse specialist, Doncaster Primary Care Trust