Webinar Details

Registration will close at 5 PM ET on April 15, 2026

Session Description: 

The mission and values of social workers practicing across setting and diagnoses can be overshadowed in systems where institutional pressures, changing health status and evolving goals force or require transitions of varied kinds: from health to illness; one setting to another; treatment to survivorship; life to death. Transitions impact patients and families and often impact staff whose relationships with patients and families may vary in meaning and longevity. Varied staff members may or may not have contributed to the processes that anchor transition decisions. Transitions can also reflect inequity and biases, often unrecognized yet contributing to clinician distress and unarticulated harms. The goal of this presentation is shared learning to consider the therapeutic opportunities implicit in transitions which may be as common as moving from hospital to home care, finishing cancer treatments, moving to survivorship, or being admitted to, or live discharged from, a hospice program. Often these transitions create conflict or dismay as they center intersecting variables which social workers often negotiate – patient and family wishes, valued relationships with clinicians, system demands to “move the patient along”, available resources and more. As social workers, we participate in and translate systems issues to patients while deepening these discussions with colleagues by acknowledging the meanings attributed to varied transitions and sharing relevant information about the history, culture and needs of the patient and family which individualize planful transitions. In the oncology world transitions can include the experience of survivorship often infused with ambivalence as relationships with clinicians and institutions, over time, have become essential components of the illness experience that support patient and often family equilibrium. This workshop will explore transitions that occur in practice all along the continuum of illness and in varied settings to discover the possibility that even transitions mandated by systemic forces might have the potential of therapeutic benefit for patients, families and clinicians. It is intended to shine a light on complexity of transitions as we seek to discover the unique meanings in varied experiences such as survivorship or the end of one’s life. 

Speaker(s): 

Terry Altilio, MSW, LCSW, APHSW-C

Terry Altilio has three decades experience of direct practice in acute care settings with almost two decades in oncology care. She is a
recipient of a Mayday Pain and Society Fellowship Award and a Social Work Leadership Award from the Project on Death in America.
She lectures nationally and internationally on pain management, ethics, language and psychosocial issues in serious illness care,
teaches in post masters programs, has co-authored journal publications, co-edited the Oxford Texts of Palliative Social Work,
Palliative Care – A Guide for Health Social Workers and Mirrors and Windows Reflections on the Journey of Serious Illness Practice.

Vickie Leff, MSW, LCSW, APHSW-C

Vickie Leff, MSW, LCSW, APHSW-C is a Palliative Care Consultant and Adjunct Instructor at Yeshiva University, Wurzweiler School of
Social Work. She served as Executive Director of SWHPN and prior to that Executive Director of the Advanced Palliative Care &
Hospice Social Work Certification. Vickie’s work has been published in Health Affairs, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management,
Journal of Palliative Medicine and more. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Practical Bioethics. She is an
editor of the book Mirrors & Windows: Reflections of the Journey in Serious Illness Practice.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Recognize and maximize the therapeutic opportunities that exist within transitions, across settings, and illness trajectory to identify and mitigate potential for inequities.  
2. Intervene during transition processes to integrate emerging research that connects these aspects of care to inequities, outcomes, patient, family, clinician distress and unintended harms such as complicated bereavement and legacy.
3. Identify foundational concepts from a variety of scholars and fields to enrich the lens through which we view transitions to maximize potential benefit and mitigate unintended consequences. 

CE credits: 1.0 hours available for purchase
Click here to view Continuing Education information.
Category: Clinical/General
Educational Level: Intermediate

Please note: Registration will close at 5 PM ET on April 15, 2026

ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL WORK BOARDS (ASWB):
This organization, Association of Oncology Social Workers, ACE Approval #1351, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 11/11/25 – 11/11/28.  Social workers completing this course receive 1.0 cultural competency continuing education credits.

NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT’S STATE BOARD FOR SOCIAL WORK:
Association of Oncology Social Work, Inc., SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0320.

Completion Requirements:
Social workers must successfully complete a quiz with a 75% passing grade and answer evaluation questions to earn credit for both live and recorded events.

*ACE approval is not accepted by all Boards. Please check the ACE jurisdiction map for a list of jurisdictions that currently accept ACE.