ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the challenges that social workers face in end-of-life care and bereavement support and, in particular, how the expressive and creative arts can provide resources that enhance coping and resilience for patients, families and for the workers themselves. Social workers encounter profound human suffering in many fields of service and are called upon to help and support people at critical points in their lives. End-of-life care and bereavement are areas of social work practice that call for a response to suffering that goes beyond the usual repertoire of psychosocial interventions. The suffering experienced by people facing their own death has been referred to as 'spiritual pain'. Social workers in end-of-life care are asked to enter into places of pain and to respond with compassion and wisdom based on their professional and personal life experiences. Arts-based research practices offer qualitative researchers alternatives to traditional research methods.
