Bridget Sumser

Bridget Sumser

Discipline: Social Worker
Funding awarded to: UCSF Medical Center

Palliative Care Education for Social Workers (PCE-SW)

PCE-SW is an interprofesionally informed palliative care curriculum for community social workers. Social workers are well positioned to assess and respond to basic palliative care needs across social service sectors including mental health, elder care, education, prisons, housing, substance use, and counseling practices. PCE-SW extends palliative care education and training outside of health care, supporting providers on the front line with the knowledge and skills to enhance the overall well-being of people living with serious illness. Partnering with local social service agencies, PCE-SW will assess the educational needs of community based social workers and design and implement work-based training.

“My leadership agenda is to engage social workers working in both community and health care settings to assess and address palliative care needs. I want all social workers to have access to comprehensive education, enhancing their capacity to care for people living with serious illness. For me, this goes beyond primary and specialty palliative care and the changing demographics demand this effort be bigger than health care. I want to use this foundation to develop educational models for social workers in any practice setting. By infiltrating the social service systems central to the survival and well-being of many Americans, we can go beyond moving palliative care upstream in health care - we can promote significant cultural change.”