April 16: A Day to Consider and Communicate Your Health Care Choices

Mar 10, 2014

NASW is pleased to continue its support for National Healthcare Decisions Day, now in its seventh year. Join the observance by encouraging your clients to consider, discuss, and document their goals for their health care—and by preparing, reviewing, and sharing your own advance directives.

Advance care planning is more than a document. It’s an ongoing process that can help each individual direct her or his health care. Social workers play an integral role in helping clients understand, and engage in, advance care planning.

Resources

National Health Care Decisions Day Web site

NASW Practice Perspective: Reexamining Advance Care Planning

Legal Defense Fund Legal Issue of the Month: Social Workers and Advance Directives

Information about the social work role in advance care planning on NASW’s consumer Web site, Help Starts Here

Information about advance care planning on the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s consumer Web site, Caring Connections

Hospice Foundation of America spring 2014 program on adolescent loss, presented in cooperation with NASW

Chris Herman, MSW, LICSW
NASW Senior Practice Associate

Three Facts Social Workers Need to Know About Risky Alcohol Use

Three Facts Social Workers Need to Know About Risky Alcohol Use

Apr 3, 2026

April is Alcohol Awareness Month. This is a key moment for social workers to strengthen how they talk with clients about alcohol use and its health impacts. As trusted professionals on the front lines of mental and behavioral health, social workers play a critical role in sharing clear, evidence-based guidance that can shape healthier outcomes.

Exploring the Emerging Field of Travel Social Work

Exploring the Emerging Field of Travel Social Work

Apr 1, 2026

By Heather Rose Artushin, MSW, LISW-CP Travel social work has been gaining popularity in recent years. A travel social worker operates in much the same way as a travel nurse – social workers assume short-term contracts, typically around 13 weeks in duration, in order...

Categories