Preventing problems of professional competence in the face of life-threatening illness.

Abstract Objective One of the main goals of the Family Talk Intervention (FTI) is to increase communication within families with dependent children about illness-related consequences and to support parenting. FTI is family-centered and includes six manual-based meetings led by two interventionists. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of the FTI in terms of acceptability from the perspective of parents in families with dependent children where one parent receives specialized palliative home care. Method A descriptive design employing mixed methods was used to evaluate the FTI in specialized palliative home care. In total, 29 parents participated in interviews and responded to a questionnaire following FTI. Qualitative content analysis and descriptive statistics were used for analyses. Results FTI responded to both the ill parent's and the healthy co-parent's expectations, and they recommended FTI to other families. Parents found the design of FTI to be well-structured and flexible according to their families’ needs. Many parents reported a wish for additional meetings and would have wanted FTI to start earlier in the disease trajectory. Parents also would have wished for a more thorough briefing with the interventionists to prepare before the start. The importance of the interventionists was acknowledged by the parents; their professional competence, engagement, and support were vital for finding ways to open communication within the family. The FTI meetings provided them with a setting to share thoughts and views. Parents clearly expressed that they would never have shared thoughts and feelings in a similar way without the meetings. Significance of results According to parents, FTI was found acceptable in a palliative home care context with the potential to add valuable support for families with minor children when a parent is suffering from a life-threatening illness.

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Stability of Patient Values in the Face of Invasive Therapies for Life-threatening Illness: Insights from the DECIDE-LVAD Trial

The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation ◽

10.1016/j.healun.2018.01.1237 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 37 (4) ◽

pp. S475-S476

Author(s):

L.A. Allen ◽

C.E. Knoepke ◽

E.C. Leister ◽

J.S. Thompson ◽

C.K. McIlvennan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Threatening Illness ◽

The Face ◽

Life Threatening ◽

Patient Values

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New mothers and their babies: attachment in the face of maternal life-threatening illness

Journal of Family Therapy ◽

10.1111/1467-6427.00122 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

pp. 321-336 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Anne McFadyen

Keyword(s):

New Mothers ◽

Life Threatening Illness ◽

The Face ◽

Life Threatening

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Roots of Authenticity

10.1093/med/9780190636364.003.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Cheryl Krauter

Keyword(s):

Healthcare Provider ◽

Cancer Care ◽

Professional Competence ◽

Humanistic Psychology ◽

Patient Relationship ◽

Existential Psychotherapy ◽

Relational Perspective ◽

Life Threatening Illness ◽

Humanistic Approach ◽

Life Threatening

This chapter demonstrates the value of incorporating the humanistic–existential psychotherapy framework into the cancer healthcare provider–patient relationship. The existential humanistic framework focuses on helping people free themselves from obsessive worries and scary stories by assisting them to understand and work with the reality of living with uncertainty. A humanistic approach is oriented toward a compassionate, nonpathological frame that promotes acceptance, reflection, and relationship. This viewpoint suggests redefining professional competence as something that allows for compassionate engagement with patients, other professionals, and most important, with oneself. Presenting the foundations of humanistic psychology, the chapter illustrates the benefits of this type of relational perspective as it translates to working with life-threatening illness and post-treatment cancer care.

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Children’s views of death

Oxford Textbook of Palliative Care for Children ◽

10.1093/med/9780198821311.003.0007 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 66-74

Author(s):

Myra Bluebond-Langner ◽

Ignasi Clemente

Keyword(s):

Lived Experience ◽

Natural Disaster ◽

Death And Dying ◽

Social And Emotional ◽

Life Threatening Illness ◽

The Everyday ◽

The Face ◽

Emotional Aspects ◽

Life Threatening ◽

Children’S Views

Death is very much a part of the everyday thoughts of children. It is part of the games they play, the stories they hear, and the videos they watch. Sadly, for some children it is also part of their everyday lives—their lived experience in the face of a life-threatening illness, war, violence, or natural disaster. In this chapter we explore well and ill children’s views of death demonstrating how children’s views of death, like those of adults, are multi-dimensional and encompass not only the physical, but also the metaphysical, social, and emotional aspects. Attention is given to how children express their awareness and understanding of death and the implications for engaging children in discussions of death and dying.

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Creating doorways: finding meaning and growth through art therapy in the face of life-threatening illness

Public Health ◽

10.1016/j.puhe.2021.07.004 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 198 ◽

pp. 245-251

Author(s):

R.C. Reilly ◽

V. Lee ◽

K. Laux ◽

A. Robitaille

Keyword(s):

Art Therapy ◽

Finding Meaning ◽

Life Threatening Illness ◽

The Face ◽

Life Threatening

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Palliative medicine: Historical record and challenges that remain

10.1093/med/9780199674282.003.0007 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

David Clark

Keyword(s):

Palliative Care ◽

Palliative Medicine ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Central Place ◽

Historical Record ◽

Life Threatening Illness ◽

The Face ◽

Life Threatening ◽

Global Coverage

With its growing recognition by the early decades of the twentieth century, palliative medicine was moving from the margins to a more central place within medicine. Much had been achieved and there was growing evidence of palliative care’s successes around the world. At the same time, there were ongoing concerns about the quality of the evidence base to support its practices. There were questions about the relationship between palliative care and end-of-life care. There was also the challenge of delivering good care to all who might need it in the face of serious and life-threatening illness in an era of population growth and ageing. There seemed to be many ways to conceptualize and deliver palliative care. Would this lead to global coverage and spread, and what would be the particular role of palliative medicine within the process? This chapter concludes with reflections on progress to date and challenges for the future.

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Psychological Death: An Adaptive Response to Life-Threatening Illness

Psychiatry in Medicine ◽

10.2190/9036-yw1w-r43m-r2a1 ◽

1972 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. 227-236 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

David Barton ◽

Joseph H. Fishbein ◽

Frank W. Stevens

Keyword(s):

Disease Process ◽

Psychiatric Ward ◽

Optimal Care ◽

Interpersonal Contact ◽

Psychological Phenomena ◽

Care Giving ◽

Life Threatening Illness ◽

Symbolic Meanings ◽

The Face ◽

Life Threatening

A 50-year-old man with documented multiple myeloma of two years duration was admitted to a psychiatric ward with the complaint of “being dead.” Discussion of the development of his complaints illustrates important issues, an understanding of which may be helpful in providing optimal care of any patient with a life-threatening illness. “Being dead” had significant individual symbolic meanings which developed from the patient's past and current conflicts and from his perceptions of changes in his body image resulting from the disease process. “Being dead” furthermore was a statement of the reflected appraisal of environmental neglect and in this context was closely related to “voodoo death.” Psychological “self-destruction” through “being dead” served to communicate anger and evoke guilt in the interpersonal environment while at the same time adaptively evoking reassurance, increased interpersonal contact, concern and amelioration of loneliness and alienation. Psychological “death” and “rebirth” also represented a quest for immortality; and complaints, through their potential to evoke humor, seemed an ironic mockery of death. In the context of a life-threatening illness, recognition and appreciation of many psychological phenomena as adaptive are necessary in order to aid both the patient and the care-giving environment to achieve a reasonable level of adaptation in the face of death.

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