Key role of social work in effective communication and conflict resolution process: Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) Program in New York and shared medical decision making at the end of life.

In this article, the authors review the development of the Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) Program and recent landmark legislation in New York State in the context of advance care planning and shared medical decision making at the end of life. Social workers are central health care professionals in working with patients, families, practitioners, health care agents, and surrogates in the health systems and in the communication and conflict resolution process that is integral to health care decision making. The critical importance of ethics and end-of-life training and education for social workers is also addressed.

End-of-life care: an interdisciplinary perspective.

The Institute of Medicine has described the "death-denying character of American society'' and surely, there is an opportunity to change this character. Despite our understandable concern with costs, end-of-life care options must be variously considered from economic, ethical, and legislative perspectives. We consider these multiple perspectives of end-of-life care in an attempt to inform current thinking on the part of legislators, policy makers, providers, patients, families/ caregivers, and insurers on the issue of end-of-life care.