As the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, its psychological, emotional, and existential toll continues to grow and indeed may now rival the physical suffering caused by the illness. Patients, caregivers, and health-care workers are particularly at risk for trauma responses and would be well served by trauma-informed care practices to minimize both immediate and long-term psychological distress. Given the significant overlap between the core tenets of trauma-informed care and accepted guidelines for the provision of quality palliative care (PC), PC teams are particularly well poised to both incorporate such practices into routine care and to argue for their integration across health systems. We outline this intersection to highlight the uniquely powerful role PC teams can play to reduce the long-term psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A representative sample of social workers practicing in health care identify high competence in essential aspects of palliative care. This speaks to an existing pool of clinicians who, if practicing to the top of their licenses, have the potential to provide primary palliative care and contribute to the person-family centered care called for in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report. Few programs exist to prepare social workers to work as specialists in palliative or end-of-life settings, and respondents identified key areas of practice that need to be integrated into graduate education to ensure that students, practitioners, and educators are better prepared to maximize the impact of health social work. Further research is needed to better understand how to prepare and train specialist-level palliative care social workers.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract