To address the social needs of our patients, we provide a Support Services team consisting of Social Workers experienced in hospice care, and a corps of Volunteers trained to work with hospice patients and their families. Our Social Workers offer advice and assistance with the many practical issues facing patients and their families as they enter hospice. This includes help with plans of care for the patient who chooses to stay at home or in another environment; conflict resolution and family meetings; financial problem solving, and help with obtaining entitlements to assistance; and planning for advance directives and funerals. These matters can be of great concern to patients and their families, so we provide the help needed to resolve these matters as quickly and easily as possible.Social Work in a Boise hospice and palliative care setting responds to the problems which arise for people in times of change in their lives. These problems can present as change in role, financial circumstances or physical ability.

Our expertise rests in gaining a thorough and sensitive understanding of people as individuals, family members, and members of the community in which they live. Alongside this, we are required to have thorough knowledge of how people can access the resources, entitlements and information they require. This is often in the area of advance directives (living wills, Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare, Do Not Resuscitate Orders (DNR or POST), funeral pre-planning, and special benefit entitlements.

Acute physical deterioration often combines with the stress and exhaustion of the patient, their families and support people. A Better Way Home Social Workers help patients and their loved ones through the process of accessing higher levels of support in the community. We also work with people whose care needs demand that they be cared for in a skilled nursing facility, assisted living facility, or hospital, if necessary. We facilitate people through the process of change and loss that accompany a terminal diagnosis.

The hospice Volunteer may provide a wide range of services. In all cases, the volunteer must be "oriented" and trained as a hospice volunteer in order to be approved to come out to the patient's home location and assist. Volunteers go through the same background checks as employees of A Better Way Home, so every step is taken to ensure the safety of our patients.  The volunteer services of a hospice are actually required by the Medicare federal standards of care.

Volunteers may sit with your loved one while you go out. They may go shopping for you, run errands, listen and help. They can help prepare meals, read for your loved one and do many other tasks to help out. Volunteers are a very important part of the hospice team. Sometimes it is the help that volunteers provide that can help make it possible for your loved one to remain at home till the very end.