Center to Advance Palliative Care

While I appreciate the desireability of a simple form to document psychosocial assessments, I would like to encourage us to also recognize the value of a skilled clinician's assessment and the discernment that comes out of that process and gets reflected in the charting. As we all move to electronic records and the check box kinds of forms those seem to require, we move further away from that flexibility, and potential for more individualized planning. Our social workers complete a psychosocial assessment and document on certain well defiend catagories we have agreed upon in order to standardize the process a bit: current situation, family composition, situation and present concerns, family history, current understanding of their situation, preferences, identified resource needs, unmet needs, and an anticipated bereavement needs assessment, etc. The SWAT tool available from NHPCO's website is another form that seems to offer some good utility, and it has been tested in the field with some encouraging results. This said, I am also looking forward to getting a look at Mt. Carmel's form! Thanks for sharing it.