Dialogue

2020 ◽  
pp. 162-177
Author(s):  
Peter J. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Positive Contribution ◽  
Death Awareness

This chapter brings together the four enabling frames and reviews their relative strengths in the light of points of conflict and agreement. Points of conflict include whether life continues after death, whether death is intrinsic to the structures of life, and whether my-death represents something beyond itself. Points of agreement include improvements in the ability to think and speak about my-death, improvements in quality of life, and the positive contribution of markers of finitude to my-death awareness. This chapter’s discussion also highlights how engagement with my-death can enhance a sense of vibrancy and meaning in life.

scholarly journals Mindfulness in informal caregivers of palliative patients

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Kögler ◽  
Monika Brandstätter ◽  
Gian Domenico Borasio ◽  
Veronika Fensterer ◽  
Helmut Küchenhoff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Mental Distress ◽  
Informal Caregivers ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Brief Symptom Inventory ◽  
Mindfulness Practice ◽  
Satisfaction With Life Scale ◽  
Psychological Well Being

AbstractObjectives:Mindfulness is a concept of growing impact on psychotherapy and has been shown to be effective for stress reduction and to improve psychological well-being. Existential Behavioural Therapy (EBT) was developed to support relatives of palliative care (PC) patients to cope with their situation during caregiving and bereavement. Mindfulness training was a core element of the intervention.We investigated the relationship between mindfulness, mental distress, and psychological well-being in informal caregivers, and evaluated if the effects of the intervention were mediated by mindfulness.Methods:Relatives of PC inpatients took part in a randomized-controlled EBT trial and completed the Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale-Revised, items from the Five Facets of Mindfulness as well as the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the WHOQOL-BREF, a numerical rating scale on quality of life (range 0–10), and the Schedule for Meaning in Life Evaluation at pre- and post-intervention, and a 3- and 12-months follow-up.Results:One-hundred-and-thirty carers were included, most of them (71.6%) recently being bereaved at the beginning of the intervention. High correlations between mindfulness and mental distress (r = −0.51, p < 0.001) as well as life satisfaction (r = 0.52, p < 0.001) were found. Mindfulness was a significant predictor of improvement in psychological distress, meaning in life and quality of life three months after the intervention. The EBT effects were partly mediated by mindfulness.Significance of results:Mindfulness seems to be a promising concept in supporting informal caregivers of PC patients. Further research is needed to identify the required format and intensity of mindfulness practice necessary for improvement.

scholarly journals Awareness of Meaning in Life is Protective Against Burnout Among Family Physicians: A CERA Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie A. Hooker ◽  
Robert E. Post ◽  
Michelle D. Sherman
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Family Medicine ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Program Directors ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
And Coping ◽  
Residency Program Directors

Background and Objectives: Burnout is considered a public health crisis among physicians and is related to poor quality of life, increased medical errors, and lower patient satisfaction. A recent literature review and conceptual model suggest that awareness of life meaning, or meaning salience, is related to improved stress and coping, and may also reduce experience of burnout. This study examined associations among meaning salience, burnout, fatigue, and quality of life among family medicine residency program directors. Methods: Data were collected via an online survey administered by the Council of Academic Family Medicine (CAFM) Educational Research Alliance (CERA; n=268, response rate of 45.4%) in December 2018. Program directors completed measures of meaning salience, burnout, fatigue, and quality of life. Data were analyzed using Spearman correlations and path analysis. Results: Program directors who reported greater experienced meaning salience also reported significantly less burnout (β=-.40, P&lt;.001) and less fatigue (β=-.38, P&lt;.001), which were then both significantly associated with greater quality of life (Ps&lt;.001). Program directors who reported greater meaning salience also reported greater quality of life (β=.21, P&lt;.001). Additionally, there were significant indirect associations between meaning salience and quality of life through less burnout and fatigue (β=.26, P&lt;.001). Conclusions: The potential for increasing physicians’ awareness of their sense of meaning as a means to prevent or decrease burnout is underresearched and warrants further study. Both preventive measures (eg, wellness curricula) and interventions with already-distressed physicians may encourage regular reflection on meaning in life, especially during busy workdays.

scholarly journals Meaning in Life of Terminally Ill Parent with Young Children – A Quantitative Evaluation with SMiLE

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henning Cuhls ◽  
Gülay Ateş ◽  
Gregory Heuser ◽  
Lukas Radbruch ◽  
Michaela Hesse
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Palliative Care ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Home Garden ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Perceived Quality Of Life ◽  
Young Parent

Abstract Background Increasing the quality of life is one of the objectives of palliative care. Meaning in life has a significant influence on the perceived quality of life. We found no studies focusing on patients with young children.Methods Young parents diagnosed with life-limiting disease could participate and create an audiobook. Patients were assessed using Schedule for Meaning in Life Evaluaton (SMiLE) pre and post intervention. The SMiLE is a validated instrument to assess meaning in life. Patients list their individual items that provide meaning in life. In a second step they are requested to rate their current level of satisfaction and in a last step they are asked to rank the importance of each item. Overall indices of weighting, satisfaction and importance are calculated. In addition, participants were interviewed twice over the course regarding expectations, concerns, motivation, and experiences.ResultsThe data were collected from February 2017 till September 2020. Fifty-four patients with ninety-six children at a mean age of seven years could be included. The involvement with the SMiLE made patients think about their resources. Most important items were in decreasing order family (100%), social relations (79.6%), leisure time (61.1%), nature/animals (38.9%), and home/garden (29.6%). Index of weighting (IOW) was 81.5, index of satisfaction (IOS) was 71.4, and a total SMiLE Index (IOWS) was 72.4. Parent felt limited by their illness in being a mother or father, as they wanted to be.ConclusionItems relevant for young parent showed differences to evaluations of cancer patients and palliative care patients. Most important item for meaning in life is the family numerated by all participants. The results indicate that evaluation of meaning in life is a coping strategy and helps young parent with young children.

Meaning in life and physical quality of life: Cross-lagged associations during inpatient rehabilitation.

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 425-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Czekierda ◽  
Karolina Horodyska ◽  
Anna Banik ◽  
Lea Wilhelm ◽  
Nina Knoll ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Inpatient Rehabilitation ◽  
Physical Quality

Marvels at Our Feet

2019 ◽  
pp. 215-224
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Back Door ◽  
The Common

This late-life essay provides an overarching statement that sums up Bailey's philosophy. He argues that "[w]e give too small thought to the beauty and quality of life," and the solution is to be found in "contact with the mystery of life that stands stark before us" throughout nature. It is through the common things in our garden, such as the buttercup or the weed at our back door, that we find the treasures and meaning in life.

scholarly journals Use of Community Resources before Inflammatory Bowel Disease Surgery is Associated with Postsurgical Quality of Life

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Norman Moskovitz ◽  
Robert Gordon Maunder ◽  
Zane Cohen ◽  
Robin Susan McLeod ◽  
Helen MacRae
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Inflammatory Bowel Disease ◽  
Bowel Disease ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Community Resources ◽  
Positive Contribution ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Inflammatory Bowel

BACKGROUND: Research in chronic illness shows that community resources can have a lasting influence on the course of the illness; however, little research has been done to evaluate the community agencies that specifically address the needs of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients.OBJECTIVES: To survey awareness of community agency resources among patients who have surgery for IBD, and to analyze the association between using these resources and qualitative postsurgical outcomes.SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Ninety-two subjects who had surgery over a 12-month period completed, in full, the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (IBDQ), and a self-report instrument used to probe awareness and use of local community resources. Community resources were divided into two groups: those involving primarily social and educational participation (’social/ educational’) and those involving some individualized attention, usually from a professional or trained lay facilitator (’professional/individual’). The contribution of presurgical participation in each type of resource to postsurgical quality of life was tested using ANOVA, with IBDQ score as the dependent variable. The ANOVA was repeated with postsurgical disease activity as a covariable. IBDQ subscale scores were compared between groups that were found to differ in the ANOVA.RESULTS: Almost all subjects were aware of at least one available resource. Participation in resources before surgery was variable, but 50% of the sample participated in at least one social/educational resource, and 46.9% participated in at least one professional/individual support. For the 92 subjects who completed both the IBDQ and the survey of resources, ANOVA revealed a main effect of professional/individual resource use on postsurgical quality of life but no main effect of social/educational resources and no interaction.DISCUSSION: The association between presurgical participation in professional or individualized community resources and better subjective outcome of IBD surgery may be explained by a positive contribution of participation to coping with surgery for IBD. The data do not support the alternative explanation that subjects with less severe disease (and thus better outcome) have greater ability to participate, although further research is required.

scholarly journals Correlates of perceived death competence: What role does meaning-in-life and quality-of-life play?

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 550-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Miller-Lewis ◽  
Jennifer Tieman ◽  
Deb Rawlings ◽  
Christine Sanderson ◽  
Deborah Parker
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Life Quality ◽  
Death Attitudes ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Presence Of Meaning ◽  
General Community

AbstractObjectiveUnderstanding factors that are associated with more adaptive death attitudes and competencies can inspire future health-promoting palliative care strategies and inform approaches to training and development for health professionals. The potential importance of meaning, purpose, quality, and values in life for promoting adaptive death attitudes has been highlighted, but there is limited research in this area, particularly in relation to death competence. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to develop an understanding of demographic and life-related factors associated with perceived death competence, such as meaning in life and quality of life.MethodDuring the course enrollment period of a Massive-Online-Open-Course about death and dying, 277 participants completed questionnaires on death competence, meaning in life, quality of life, and sociodemographic background.ResultFindings indicated that greater presence of meaning in life, quality of life, age, death experience, and carer experience were each statistically significant unique predictors of death competence scores. Life-related variables were more strongly associated with death competence than demographic variables. Bereavement experience and experience caring for the dying was associated with greater death competence, but there were no differences on death competence between health professionals and the general community. Above all other factors, the presence of meaning in life was the strongest predictor of higher perceived competence in coping with death.Significance of resultsThe findings demonstrate important interconnections between our attitudes about life and death. Knowledge of factors associated with poorer death competence may help identify those at risk of greater distress when facing death, and might prove useful additions to bereavement risk assessments. Understanding factors associated with greater death competence in health professionals and volunteers may help predict or prevent burnout and compassion fatigue, and help identify who would benefit from additional training and support. Future longitudinal studies including both health professionals and the general community are needed to determine the effect adaptive attitudes toward meaning in life can potentially have on bolstering subsequent adaptive coping and competence regarding death and dying.

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