Editor Introduction.

The journal had a call for manuscripts for a special issue on “Racism and its Challenges in Palliative Social Work” in 2021. Dr. Karen Bullock served as the Guest Editor for this call (assisted by Stacy Orloff, Reflections section Editor). Thanks to Dr. Bullock for agreeing to work on this issue and for her oversight of the reviews of the manuscripts we received for this special call. In this issue, we share several “Reflections” received for this topic. Please don’t miss the Reflections as these social workers’ share their thoughts and experiences. Unfortunately, we did not have other submissions that were able to be accepted among the very low number submitted for practice concepts or research categories. We were expecting to produce a meaningful full issue addressing this important area affecting everyday policy, practice and research. We hope that this does not mean that the work addressing challenges that racism poses in providing palliative care is not being done. On behalf of the journal’s editorial board, I invite those of you doing this work to please submit your projects, programs, and studies to the journal at any time for potential publication. We will look forward to seeing your submissions. Our goal is that this journal continues to be a vehicle to share good work as well as highlight what needs to be done better. Moving on to the research articles in this issues, the first addresses the important topic of preparing for death of an older adult family member by the family caregivers. Hovland and Fuller specifically focus on a sample of African American family caregivers because African Americans are at higher risk of dementia-related health problems, although diagnosed at a much lower rate than Caucasians. They are also less likely to enroll in hospice services, therefore the authors believed there was something we could learn from those that do that could possibly help others to enroll. In their qualitative study including five hospice family caregivers, all reported that they felt “prepared” for their family members’ deaths and further believed that being prepared was important. The role that hospice played in helping them to achieve this is discussed through their narratives. In another entry regarding hospice family caregivers, Oliver and colleagues describe a Facebook online support group for hospice family caregivers caring for people with advanced cancer. They describe this intervention, implementation and results. The online support groups were designed to provide education and support. The participants in the group reported lower levels of depression after participation in the group. Hospice programs may wish to develop similar online protocols/groups adapted for the caregivers they serve. Next, Plys et al. present a study focusing on the psychosocial effect of death on the surviving residents with Assisted Living Facilities. They took a qualitative look and analyzed several sources of data within 21 AL facilities, including interviews with residents. This is especially important as AL is the residents’ homes and fellow resident and their families become their families for the duration of living there. They found that the AL had memorialization practices which were perceived as important by the