IARP-IALCP Journal of Life Care Planning, Vol. 9, No. 3

IARP-IALCP Section members may download this issue online.

With this issue, the long-awaited and much-anticipated study on the roles and functions of the life care planner is complete and presented herein along with two relevant appendices.

This study is the most comprehensive life care planning role and function research project ever completed. Noteworthy is that the methodology was independent of any certification organizations and incorporated experienced life care planning professionals in the construct validity foundation. Additionally. a wide array of disciplines representing many different certifications and organizations were instrumental in completion of the project. Dr. Pomeranz of the University of Florida was the lead researcher and he was joined by his graduate assistant, Nami Yu, and research expert, Professor Chris Reid from Virginia Commonwealth University. This is another study that was supported, in part, by the Foundation for Life Care Planning
Research.

Following some of the earlier work on roles and functions (of rehabilitation counselors), such as Muthard and Salamone (1969), and Rubin, et al. (1984), along with more recent studies such as Leahy, et al. (2003), and Turner, et al. (2000), the authors (Pomeranz, Yu, and Reid) developed a 122 item instrument on various roles and functions of life care planners. The
multiphase project incorporated a team of researchers, a panel of experts, and participants attending two national conferences on life care planning to develop and/or confirm the relevancy of the items at various stages. After exhaustive foundation, the final revised survey was made available for a two month period on-line through list serves to professionals in life care planning; 155 professionals completed the survey.