Purpose: This study was designed to address concerns expressed by both social work educators and social work practitioners about lack of end-of-life care preparation (Christ & Sormanti, 1999; Csikai & Bass, 2000; Kovacs & Bronstein, 1999), but with a specialized population of helping professionals: child protective services (CPS) workers. The purpose was to identify end-of-life care situations encountered by CPS workers and to ascertain the level of preparation received in educational programs and perceived educational needs for effective practice with end-of-life issues in this setting. No previous studies can be found that have specifically identified issues around serious illness, injury, and death and educational preparation of child protective services workers or practice with end-of-life issues. Methods: An eight-page quantitative survey was mailed to one-half (547) of the child protective services workers employed by the Department of Human Resources (DHR) in one southern state. The survey was sent out by (DHR) personnel with a return stamped envelope addressed to the researcher(s). One follow-up (postcard) was sent approximately 2-3 weeks after the initial mailing. Responses from a total of 138 returned surveys were analyzed in this study. Results: Only 5.8% of respondents indicated that they never encountered end-of-life situations. A range of situations were seen by these workers: child death due to abuse (63.9%), child with life-threatening/limiting illness (54.1%), death of birth parent (53.4%), and death of birth grandparent (39.1%). Almost one-half (48.2%) had worked on at least one child death case, three-quarters of which occurred as a result of a traumatic injury versus a chronic problem, such as neglect. Forty-one percent believed that end-of-life situations were very or extremely difficult for them to handle in their job. This difficulty stemmed from little prior work-related experience with death (53.5%), no time to “process” events with clients/families (47.2%) and little prior education regarding death and dying issues (33.9%). Perceived educational content of greatest need included religious/spiritual differences that impact the death experience, psychological and social needs of families, and the influence of dying on family dynamics. Implications for Practice: While one can easily understand that social workers working in health care settings need to understand end-of-life issues, as evidenced in this study, child protective services workers also face a range of end-of-life issues for which they may be unprepared in terms of education and experience to handle effectively. Educational materials can and should be developed to assist CPS workers to deal with these difficult issues in practice.

References: Christ, G. H., & Sormanti, M. (1999). Advancing social work practice in end-of-life care. Social Work in Health Care, 30(2), 81-99. Csikai, E. L., & Bass, K. (2000). Health care social workers views of ethical issues, practice, and policy in end-of-life care. Social Work in Health Care. Kovacs, P., Bronstein, L. (1999). Preparation for oncology settings: What hospice social workers say they need. Health & Social Work, 24(1) 57-64.