With 53 years of experience volunteering in palliative care between them, these five social workers have seen it all.

As social worker volunteers with the Palliative care Education and Research Consortium (PcERC) in Kampala, Uganda, they provide the psychosocial support and assist the practical needs of patients receiving palliative care and their families in hospital. 

Indeed, social workers Maria, Ronald, Teddy, and the affectionately named “Vicky 1 and Vicky 2” are a large part of the PcERC team and they each spend at least two days every week on the wards of Mulago Specialised Referral Hospital and Kiruddu National Referral Hospital.

Recently, I had the privilege of spending time with each of them, as we discuss their role in the unit, the patients and families on the ward, and the impact of palliative care. 

I’ve quickly come to find out what all the social work volunteers can do in the PcERC team. They visit the patients between ward rounds and alert the clinical staff if there is any issue.

They listen, guide, and counsel the patient and family on topics from navigating around the hospital to reconciling with loved ones. While they are well acquainted with grief and bereavement, these never get easy and it can be an emotional challenge to continue their work sometimes. 

Through their time with PcERC, they have been trained to help write wills and draft formal requests – and at the same time – have grown as educators as they bring homework and other assignments to children on ward missing class.

Holistic care really can be quite practical, as I learned from the social work team, and so their work can include picking up prescriptions or a meal for the patient. They also work with the PcERC administration to allocate their patient comfort fund towards purchasing items the patient and family cannot afford themselves. 

During my time together, I kept asking, ‘Why palliative care? What keeps you volunteering with PcERC?’

For several of them, the palliative care team has become a family: one social worker’s spouse became quite unwell and needed counselling at one of the national government hospitals. Ever since that experience, that volunteer warmly remembers how the palliative care unit stood close to their family and supported them during and after the spouse’s hospitalisation. 

Another volunteer shared on about a previous cancer diagnosis and their journey towards wellness; now, they want to offer the same compassionate and quality care to others who have cancer and other chronic diseases. 

It is not a surprise, then, that the combined efforts of the social work volunteers with the clinical staff have a great impact on the patients and families.

One oxygen-dependant patient who was already hospitalised for two years, shared that she feels more “at home” at the hospital and less depressed after being referred to the palliative care unit. She even said that she has no worries at all: “I have got a special team to help me and to check on me on a daily basis … it’s to the extent of that I even forget that I am an orphan.”

Maria, Ronald, Teddy, Vicky 1, and Vicky 2 are also eager to share the impact that palliative care has had on them. Ronald, for example, cites the many trainings they have attended as well as the opportunity to learn and practice research skills. Likewise, several have observed that they’ve bettered as social workers and in their communication methods after joining PcERC. 

Maria summarised one of her favorite aspects of volunteering with the palliative care unit: teamwork.

“I like the teamwork in palliative care,” Maria told me, “Which consists of doctors, nurses, social workers, and pharmacists. This teamwork is good because it encourages everyone in the team to contribute and work shared among all in the team. Palliative care is not a one man’s show. Two or more heads are better than one.”

We have certainly seen the benefit of the whole palliative care team in our partner, PcERC. Well done to each member of the unit, including the social workers who volunteer there.