Grief-Informed Practice: A Social Work Imperative

Maxxine Rattner (she/her) completed her PhD last year at Laurier, and has over 20 years of experience in health-related clinical, community-based, and policy settings. She worked for a decade as a hospice social worker, supporting the psychosocial needs of hospice residents and their families/chosen families, and implementing a year-long bereavement support program. Currently, she is a contract lecturer in social work with Toronto Metropolitan University and Wilfrid Laurier University, a clinical team member with the national not-for-profit organization Canadian Virtual Hospice, and a founding/executive member of the Canadian Grief Alliance. In her private practice, she provides clinical training and education to  health care teams, and clinical supervision to social workers working in diverse settings, including palliative care, long term care and cancer care. She completed her MSW at FIFSW in 2011 and has taught as part of U of T’s Centre for Advancing Collaborative Healthcare & Education’s ‘Dying & Death’ event since 2013.