The psychosocial evaluation of the hospice patient.

A psychosocial evaluation of a patient is an important first step in the provision of care to hospice patients and their families. It serves as a guide for intervention, communicates social work concerns to other caregivers, and articulates important features of the patient/family system from an interdisciplinary perspective. The psychosocial evaluation addresses the patient's problems in a historical framework by identifying important developmental features as they pertain to the tasks of dying. It identifies physical resources and needs and evaluates the patient's psychosocial functioning, with particular emphasis on the patient's roles within a family system. Hospice recognizes the uniqueness of each individual as he or she confronts life's final challenge. An adequate psychosocial evaluation brings that uniqueness into focus.