Page 203 - HA Convention 2016 [Full Version]

Corporate Scholarship Presentations HOSPITAL AUTHORITY CONVENTION 2016

C3.1 Palliative Care 14:30 Room 428

Clinical Psychologist’s Roles in Palliative Care and the Treatment of Prolonged Grief: The Sydney Experience
Hung D
Psychology Department, Grantham Hospital, Hong Kong

The enhanced psychosocial programme in palliative care in the Hospital Authority (HA) started in 2012. Quality services and
continuity of care were maximised for patients and families facing advanced illnesses. Clinical psychologists (CPs) in palliative
care (PC) units have strengthened their roles, including the followings: (1) identifying at-risk patients and family members at
an early stage; (2) interventions for anxiety, depression, and other psychological issues surrounding the anticipatory loss; and
(3) enhancing carers’ strengths in facing anticipatory loss. Moreover those with symptoms of prolonged grief had access to
specialised care to address their grief issues.

To further consolidate CPs’ roles in PC and grief support, four clinical psychologists from the HA attended the Overseas
Corporate Scholarship Programme on palliative care and prolonged grief in Sydney from 23 March to 3 April 2015.

Visits to four palliative care settings in various local health districts in New South Wales had widened the horizon as to
how PC service could be organised and delivered. Good practices in terms of end-of-life care and support, as well as
organisational and clinical processes were illuminating. CPs revisited and reflected on their inputs to palliative care, especially
their roles in the inter-professional practice in the multidisciplinary PC team.

Attachment to the internationally acclaimed Traumatic Stress Clinic focused on studying and adapting the cognitive-
behavioural treatment protocol for prolonged grief. The treatment protocol targeted at adults who had lost a loved one for
more than a year and were still suffering persistent distress with difficulty coping with the loss. The therapy focused on both
processing the past losses and orienting to the future with emphasis on adaptive and goal-directed living. Mental processing
of the distressing moments related to the loved one’s death was facilitated. The bereaved were helped to modify their
maladaptive thoughts. A renewed emotional connection with the deceased was facilitated. This treatment protocol had been
applied to selected local patients with positive therapeutic outcome.

In conclusion, the corporate scholarship programme had strengthened the roles of CPs in palliative care and facilitated CPs
to develop a structured and evidence-based treatment protocol for patients suffering from prolonged grief in local hospital
settings.

C3.2 Palliative Care 14:30 Room 428

US Attachment Programme for Social Workers in Palliative Care — Observation of Good Practices and Wednesday, 4 May
Reflections in Advanced Care Planning and Bereavement Care
Ling HS
Medical Social Work Department, Ruttonjee and Tang Shiu Kin Hospitals, Hong Kong

This was the first oversea training designated for palliative care medical social workers, aiming at equipping advanced
psychosocial and specific therapeutic knowledge and skills to meet the complex psychosocial needs of patients/families and
enhance palliative care service quality. Four Palliative Social Workers from Caritas Medical Centre, Grantham Hospital and
Ruttonjee & Tang Shiu Kin Hospitals were selected to attend this three-week training programme. The programme includes
a combination of in-class and hands-on training conducted by Dr. Lorraine Hedtke at the Fabula Center, as well as an
attachment to four VITAS Healthcare® interdisciplinary teams in the catchment area of Riverside and Redlands, California.

VITAS Healthcare®, a pioneer and leader in the hospice movement since 1978, is the US’s largest provider of end-of-life care.
It operates 52 hospice programmes in 16 states and the District of Columbia. In the Inland Empire it serves people throughout
the region which covers a large and diverse population of over four million people. VITAS Healthcare® team members include
registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, home health aides, physicians, social workers, chaplains and other caregivers.
We paired up with the team members including mission nurses, case managers, social workers and chaplains by shadowing
one by one in their routine work, for example, visiting patients at home or in assisted facilities, paying condolence visits to the
bereaved families, and attending interdisciplinary group meeting every week.

Dr. Lorraine Hedtke teaches the topics on death, dying and bereavement throughout the US and around the globe. Her
unique ideas and practices are drawn from narrative therapy, and are distinguished from the conventional models of grief
psychology. She is the founder of The Fabula Center, a counselling and training centre located in Redlands, Southern
California. Throughout the six-day classroom study, we have understood the concepts and ideology of narrative therapy,
acquired the skills of re-membering conservation and its application in casework and group work practice.

This presentation will highlight what we have observed during the shadowing with VITAS Healthcare® frontline staffs, how the
social workers collaborate with the interdisciplinary team members in preparing the Advance Care Planning and emphasising
the spirituality in routine community-based hospice services. We were impressed by the large scale of mobilised volunteers
in bereavement care and the standardisation of resources kits. Meanwhile, the re-membering conservation suggested by Dr.
Lorraine Hedtke is comforting and life enhancing. It does not dwell on the pain of loss, but it affirms hopes and connection. It
is the construction of stories that continue to include the dead in our lives. She inspires palliative social workers in rendering
bereavement counselling.

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