Equitable and best practice grief and bereavement support is core business of palliative care. It is important for referrers to understand risk factors to identify and offer grief counsellor support to those most at risk of not being able to integrate their grief into daily living and function. Limited data exist regarding palliative care grief assessment and intervention in the acute hospital setting. 

 

Our quaternary hospital-based consultation-liaison palliative care service has an embedded grief counsellor who provides psychosocial support to patients and their families (carers/significant others) facing serious illness and death. Referrals to the palliative care grief counsellor predominantly come from within the palliative care team, with some referrals from other teams across the organisation. Referrals may be sent prior to or following a death.  

 

The aim of this workshop is to bring collective knowledge and experience to review various approaches and tools for grief and bereavement assessment in palliative care and how they apply across various settings: consultation-liaison, palliative care unit and community. We will share our consultation-liaison service’s experience of an embedded risk assessment within the grief counsellor referral form in the setting of limited data in the acute hospital setting. 

 

Using case-based, facilitated small group discussion, we will involve the audience in an interactive workshop. Participants will have opportunities to consider composite scenarios. Utilising theory and workplace experience, participants will discuss approaches to grief assessment and interventions. 

 

·       Review grief and bereavement assessment tools utilised in various palliative care settings;

·       Apply grief and bereavement risk assessment tools in case-based discussion format; and 

·       Discuss the value and limitations of existing grief and bereavement assessment tools in various settings.