About

Rooted in practice. Growing through theory and research.

My name is Caitlin Cassady. I spent seven years working as a clinical social worker in California, Oregon, and Michigan where I practiced with persons and families dealing with chronic illness, trauma, dying and death. In home health and hospice on the West Coast, I worked with suburban and rural-dwelling folks navigating patchy or non-existent ancillary, social, or governmental services. In the City of Detroit, I worked with hospitalized people and their families in emergency, intensive care, and hospice inpatient care settings. I have also provided hospice social work at the community level in and around Detroit; visiting terminally ill folks in their family home or a nursing home. My practice roles in these positions ranged from providing grief counseling, helping with need-based applications, organizing family meetings, to providing an abiding presence during the most difficult moments of people’s lives.

It was in this clinical practice and teaching future masters-level social workers that I became intersted in how care was being provided. I began to wonder if our systems for delivering care during chronic illness and especially at the very end of life were working from an evidence base that reflected a range of human experiences and cultures. The questions I was formulating brought me to a program offering a joint degree in social work and anthropology.