SOCIAL-WORK ASSESSMENT AT END OF LIFE - PRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR SUICIDE AND THE TERMINALLY ILL

As social workers, we are educated about the values of client self-det ermination as well as the affirmation of uniqueness in how the client experiences life and death. In terms of choices at the end of life, as sisted suicide has begun to come out of the closet, so to speak, and a s a result, the National Association of Social Worker's adopted a poli cy in 1993 which addresses this end of life option. Oregon passed Ball ot Measure 16 in November of 1994 which allows for a terminally ill pe rson to request drugs to end life. As the legalities of assisted suici de are decided by judges and courts, some terminally ill people will t hink about and decide to take their own lives rather than wait for the disease process to come to its own ending. There are very few practic e guidelines available to social workers who work with the suicidal te rminally ill. A traditional mental health model for evaluation of leth ality cannot be imposed onto this population. A three-part model for a ssessment and evaluation of a suicidal request from a terminally ill p erson is proposed in this article.