FAMILY CONFERENCES AS FORUMS FOR DECISION-MAKING IN-HOSPITAL SETTINGS

Social workers in hospitals are often involved in family conferences w here patient, family members and hospital personnel meet together to e xchange information about the patient's condition and to plan for the future. In this paper the complexities of these meetings as decision m aking arenas are discussed and an outline of the three phases of famil y conferences-preparation, the conference meeting and follow up-is pre sented. The final section reports on an exploratory review of recent c onferences as perceived by social workers from an acute and rehabilita tion teaching hospital. The social workers' comments indicate that the conferences achieve the desired outcomes, especially for hospital sta ff. In this hospital the conferences are more often used for providing family members with information, and for collective decision making a bout the patient's future care, than for providing information to the patients about their illness and treatment.