What is it like to be a palliative care social worker?

Published 18 March 2025 More in

“I don’t know precisely what I’ll be doing in five years but I’ll definitely still be supporting people to achieve their goals before they die.”

While she’s quick to recognise the personal toll it can take, and there are some weekends when she simply can’t stop thinking about someone she’s supporting, Beth Kwesiga says she loves her job as a palliative care social worker and can’t imagine doing anything else.

It was a desire to work more closely with individuals and their families that drew Beth to St Christopher’s after a number of years working as a social worker in Accident and Emergency and hospital discharge.

Keen to discover if it would be the job for her, Beth visited the hospice and met the team before completing the application. Six years on and that serious preparation has paid off because Beth definitely has no regrets.

“I work here out of passion. Social worker jobs in palliative care are few and far between and I really love my job,” she says.

“I count it as a privilege that someone would allow me into their life when they know they don’t have much time left and that time is precious. They open up, allow me into their world, talk to me about deeply personal things and give me the privilege of supporting them and their family at a time when they are most in need and every hour counts. The difference I can make is to support them to have a better ending.”

Beth started her higher education with a law degree, before completing a Masters in Social Work. Her day-to-day job does though, among many other skills, require legal knowledge for navigating complex issues.

Such is the variety involved in her role as Senior Social Worker, Beth finds it hard to neatly pigeonhole it.

“Knowing that a person has died having achieved their goal is what success feels like to me.”

“It’s so varied. It entails supporting patients and their families, both here on the wards and in the community. It could involve supporting children whose parents are struggling to talk to them about their condition.

“Another major part of the job revolves around safeguarding, as people approaching the end of life can be very vulnerable. It might be that someone is trying to take their money or block care for them.”

With any new referral, Beth says, the most important thing is to establish what the person wants to achieve.

“Often, it’s very hard for people to know what to ask for because they don’t know what’s on offer. So, we need to spell out the options and then establish what they want to achieve and look at the best ways we can help them to do that. Knowing that person has died having achieved their goal is what success feels like to me.”

“There are always cases that stick with you.”

Two cases from recent years illustrate both the variety and challenging and emotional nature of Beth’s work.

In the first, Beth was supporting a man keen to reconnect with his three daughters who he’d walked out on when they were young children 30 years previously. He’d had no further contact with them. With the help of the Salvation Army family tracing service, Beth made contact with one of the women who said she spoke for all three, that none of them wanted to see him, but that she would send a letter and photos.

“He died before the letter arrived but for him it was about letting them know that he did love them, he cared and was sorry for what he’d done. That message was conveyed and so he could die at peace.”

Beth spent a year supporting a young woman of 27 and, as she approached the end of life, she asked Beth for help making a video for her mother.

Beth sat in as the St Christopher’s Communications team filmed the woman recording her message to her mother, before Beth later sat watching it through with her and picking the bits to edit. It was then that the really challenging part came.

“When I asked when she’d like me to give the film to her mother, she told me that, having worked with her for a year, I’d know when the time was right! Her mother had said all along she didn’t want anything like this, and sure enough when I phoned her a few weeks after the funeral, she repeated that.

“When I said that it was what her daughter really wanted, she started to relax and understand. I know that for me I’ve supported the daughter to do something that was important to her.”

It’s these kinds of challenges that motivate Beth to come into work every day, even if she’s pragmatic enough to know that she won’t always be able to achieve what people want and that having tactful, well-timed conversations to manage their expectations, is an equally important part of the job.

Despite being only 36, Beth has accrued a huge amount of experience and there’s a further string to her bow which, it turns out. is the one of which she is most proud.

“I think I’d say my proudest achievement is taking what I’ve learned and sharing it with others – whether that’s students who come and do work placements here at St Christopher’s or students I go and share my learnings from case work with at South Bank University a couple of times a year.”

“My proudest achievement is taking what I’ve learned and sharing it with others.”

With four children at home, you might imagine Beth wouldn’t have time to dwell on her work at the end of the day. She explains that the connection she makes with some people means it’s just not possible to switch off completely.

“There are always cases that stick with you. Some weekends, if I’m working with someone with whom I’ve built a relationship and they’re approaching the final stages of life, then there’s nothing that will take my mind off it.”

That certainly doesn’t dim Beth’s passion for her work though and feedback from patients and families always helps too.

“We receive some lovely cards and letters and that really helps to make you feel like you’ve made a difference and gives validation for what you do.

“I don’t know precisely what I’ll be doing in five years’ time but I’ll definitely still be supporting people to achieve their goals before they die,” she adds.

This interview was originally published in issue 5 of our Connect magazine. To read the full magazine, or to sign up to receive future editions, please click here.