NEW: The Spring issue of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER is available NOW at http://www.socialworker.com. Highlights of this issue include developing your social work portfolio, talking about Borderline Personality Disorder, ethics and respect, what social workers need to know about human sexuality, going to grad school--now or later, new book reviews, and much more. Here’s a quick link for immediate download of the PDF edition for Spring 2016:

 

You can go to http://www.socialworker.com/Subscribe_to_The_New_Social_Worker and subscribe (free) to receive an email reminder and table of contents of each issue of The New Social Worker magazine when it is available. If you are a subscriber to the E-News (which you are reading now), this does NOT mean that you are automatically subscribed to The New Social Worker magazine. They are two different publications.

 

Are you one of our 144,000+ fans on Facebook? Connect with us—we love connecting with you!

Find jobs for new grads and experienced social work practitioners at http://www.socialworkjobbank.com, THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER’s online job board and career center.

     Coping with death is challenging no matter the circumstance. The death of a client presents unique challenges for social workers and other helping professionals.

    You may find yourself asking: How do I grieve this loss? How do I honor this client’s memory? Where do I turn for support? Are my feelings normal? How am I supposed to behave? When I had a client die, I didn’t have any frame of reference or experience to draw on. I’d grieved the loss of several family members, but this was different. No one had prepared me for the death of a client.

    The death of a client is unavoidable in your career as a social worker. Last week, I was meeting with a new supervisee who had just had his first experience with the death of a client. Then today, I was informed that one of my former clients had recently died. A couple of weeks before this, another supervisee had a client die. I have personally experienced several client deaths over the years (by suicide, car accident, shooting). It’s not uncommon, especially if you work with vulnerable populations. So, there is a high likelihood you will encounter a client’s death at some point in your career.

    Your personality, personal history, culture, and other experiences will all influence how you perceive and react to the loss of your client. The details of the relationship and circumstances surrounding your client’s death also play a big part in how it affects you. For example, the experience of the death of an older client in a hospice program will be very different from the experience of the death of a teenage client by suicide.

    Another stressor may be that you are simultaneously grieving yourself and responsible for providing grief counseling to other clients. If you work in a residential setting or school, your other clients may have known your deceased client and need help to cope, as well.

    Emotional support is important to healthy coping with any upsetting or traumatic experience. We usually turn to our friends and family for support. However, your friends and family may be limited in their ability to understand the complexity of your feelings about the death of your client. Seek support from those who understand. This may include your supervisor, co-workers, field instructor, or social work professors. Effective and supportive supervision is essential. Your own personal psychotherapy can be helpful, especially if this is your first experience with a client’s death, if it is reminding you of previous losses, or it is negatively affecting your daily activities.

 

A ground-breaking book by Dr. Danna Bodenheimer, LCSW, from The New Social Worker Press

ISBN: 978-1-929109-50-0

223 pages

Available now at:

 

"Danna Bodenheimer has written an insider’s guide to clinical social work that doesn’t make the reader feel like an outsider. This book is the clinical supervisor you always wanted to have: brilliant yet approachable, professional yet personal, grounded and practical, yet steeped in theory, and challenging you to dig deeper." Jonathan B. Singer, Ph.D., LCSW, Associate Professor of Social Work, Loyola University Chicago, Founder and Host, Social Work Podcast