ABSTRACT
Palliative care is rooted in the conceptualization and application of whole-person care. The field of social work is rooted in a commitment to social justice emanating from an analysis of how power, privilege, and oppression impact everyone. This chapter explores theoretical frameworks to both complicate and clarify lived experience of patients, families, and self through systems of power as well as tools for reflection to catalyze self-awareness. The intent is to understand the impact of the pervasive sociopolitical systems of oppression, namely imperialism, patriarchy, and white supremacy. The chapter also explores the theories of the ecological systems model, intersectionality, and antiracism, as well as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the many public murders of Black people in the United States by police. It then explores the theories of ecological systems theory, intersectionality, and anti-racism to set a backdrop for the text at large while suggesting the possibility that palliative social work is always a social justice practice. Importantly, intersectionality can be used to better understand experiences of power and oppression, and the ways one person can experience both. Social workers working in healthcare can ask themselves how they are aligned with and perpetuating unequal systems of care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)