Abstract · We aim to illuminate the social worker’s place and role in hospice care. We consider it important to fill a social workers post, because the individual’s relations concerning psychological and social problems should be solved with the assistance of professionals who can present potentials and give help fostering equal opportunities and social justice. By means of this online questionnaire we intended to assess the opportunities, capacities and capacity utilization connected to social work, and to illuminate the occurring institutional imperfections, furthermore the emerging needs in the field of hospice care. The findings from the research suggest that this field is in sore need of developing factual protocols, which have to be analyzed and reintegrated in the course of application in practice. This can only come true through the close cooperation of professional workers.

Abstract · In our paper we summarize the Grief Recovery Method TM and the knowledge and experiences transmitted by The Grief Recovery Handbook of John W. James and Russel Friedman. According to the developers of the method, there are no absolute truths about mourning, although we can observe general reactions. Because every person and each relationship is unique, so each mourning and healing process is unique, too. Based on their experiences, the reason for unprocessed grief is mostly incomplete emotional communication. So following the steps of the action program helps to consummate the emotionally living relationship and to process the loss through completed emotional communication. The goal of the Grief Recovery Method Center, Hungary - in close cooperation with The Grief Recovery Institute, which has been operating in Los Angeles since 1977, assisting hundreds of thousands of mourners - is to deliver information about the mourning process, to promote the method as widely as possible and to assist mourners in individual and group settings.

Abstract · The most important task of humane care for dying patients with cancer is effective pain relief, for which nowadays we already have very effective painkillers. Yet, studies show that tumorous pain is less treated worldwide than it should be. The main reason for this is that in connection with painkillers, mainly with opioids, there are many misbeliefs and fears, which create psychological barriers for the doctors preventing them of exploiting opportunities. Fears concerning opioids were shown not just in patients and their relatives but also in professionals working in healthcare. Reducing fear and misbeliefs is partly the job of education, and for this we need well-designed educational programs. However, it is also necessary to reduce anxiety caused by proximity of death with psychological support in order to help the patient and his supporters to make good health decisions and to accept effective symptomatic treatment. The study reviews international literature concerning fears and treatment of pain relief in order to achieve a more efficient symptomatic treatment of patients in hospice - palliative institutes in Hungary.