NASW Bereavement Trainings For 2003

Bereavement Practice Guidelines for Social Workers in Emergency Departments
Introduction

The sudden death of a child or adolescent is a traumatic event for all involved: parents, siblings, relatives, members of the young person’s community, and care providers. Emergency Departments witness these deaths daily. Deaths result from injury; violence in schools, homes, and communities; motor vehicle crashes; fire; drowning; substance abuse; suicide; and terrorism. Emergency Departments care for the physical and emotional needs of children, adolescents and their families. Healthcare professionals recognize that such emotional care offered to a family at the time of the child’s death is as important as the medical care the child received before death. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) has identified the Master’s prepared social worker as the professional with the training and skills needed to work effectively with families in crisis and serve as the Emergency Department team’s designated family care provider. With the public tragedies of late, emergency department social workers also need to be skilled in disaster preparedness, response and recovery. With funding from Emergency Medical Services for Children, a division of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, NASW has developed a training program for social workers.

Workshop Description and Goals

Working in conjunction with NASW chapters, experienced facilitators offer bereavement practice guidelines through lecture, videos, case studies and group discussion. The workshop offers resources to help social workers address the psychosocial needs of bereaved families in the emergency department. Further, social workers will gain knowledge of disasters and resources in order to address the crisis needs of families in the emergency department.

The workshop goals are to:

  • Enhance the ED social worker’s knowledge of the grief process of a family who experiences the sudden loss of a child
  • Develop and enhance the social worker’s skills and ability to help a family who experiences the sudden loss of a child
  • Increase the social worker’s knowledge and skills in disaster preparedness, response and recovery by applying the bereavement practice guidelines
CEUs

This workshop is credited for up to 7.0 contact hours. CEUs are credited to the length of each chapter's workshop. Workshops range from half-day to all day in length.

For more information, contact Karyn Walsh, Bereavement Project Director, at 202-408-8600 ext. 448 (ttd: 202-336-8396) or contact NASW at http://www.naswdc.org

FOR UPCOMING WORKSHOPS, click here.
Related Document:
  1. Bereavement Practice Guidelines for Health Care Professionals in the Emergency Department: Best Practices in Supporting the Family and Staff When a Child Dies Suddenly can be downloaded at http://www.ems-c.org/downloads/doc/822BPGuides.doc
  2. The 2002 trainee manual, Bereavement Practice Guidelines for Social Workers in Emergency Departments, can be downloaded at http://ems-c.org/PFC/Downloads/DOC/911trainee.doc
  3. After the Emergency is Over: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Children and Youth can be downloaded at http://www.ems-c.org/downloads/pdf/ptstress.pdf
  4. Emergency Medical Services for Children which supports the bereavement workshops for social workers can be accessed at http://www.ems-c.org

http://www.socialworkers.org/practice/bereavement/bereavement.asp
10/7/2013
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