Palliative medicine
-
Palliative medicine · Sep 2015
The meaning of home at the end of life: A video-reflexive ethnography study.
While 'home' is cited most frequently as being the preferred place of death, most people will die in institutions. Yet, the meaning and significance of home for people nearing the end of life has not been fully explored. ⋯ Home is a dynamic concept for people nearing the end of life and is concerned with expression of social and cultural identity including symbolic and affective connections, as opposed to being merely a physical dwelling place or street address. Clinicians caring for people nearing the end of life can foster linkages with home by facilitating connections with loved ones and meaningful artefacts.
-
Palliative medicine · Aug 2015
Teleconsultation for integrated palliative care at home: A qualitative study.
Interprofessional consultation contributes to symptom control for home-based palliative care patients and improves advance care planning. Distance and travel time, however, complicate the integration of primary care and specialist palliative care. Expert online audiovisual teleconsultations could be a method for integrating palliative care services. ⋯ Specialist palliative care team teleconsultation with home-based patients leads to collaboration between primary care physicians and hospital-based palliative care specialists. Due to cultural reasons, most collaboration was of a multidisciplinary character, strongly relying on organized backstage work. Interdisciplinary teleconsultations with real-time contact between patient and both professionals were less common but stimulated patient-centered care dialogues.
-
Palliative medicine · Jul 2015
ReviewInterventions for bereaved parents following a child's death: A systematic review.
A child's death is one of the most stressful events that parents and siblings may experience. Interventions for bereaved families following a child's death have been examined over the last several decades. However, there is little high-quality evidence to support any rationale for determining optimal interventions for bereaved parents and siblings. ⋯ Very little evidence of sufficient quality is available to confirm the effects of intervention measures on bereaved parents and siblings following a child's death. Well-designed randomized controlled trials are needed to improve our understanding of the efficacy and implementation of interventions targeting bereaved parents and siblings.
-
Palliative medicine · Jul 2015
ReviewA scoping review of bereavement risk assessment measures: Implications for palliative care.
Palliative care standards and policies recommend that bereavement support be provided to family caregivers, yet uncertainty surrounds whether support currently offered by palliative care services throughout developed countries meets caregiver needs. The public health model of bereavement support, which aligns bereavement support needs with intervention, may address this gap between policy and practice. ⋯ This review is an important preliminary step in improving the assessment of bereavement risk and, consequently, better bereavement outcomes for palliative care family caregivers.
-
Palliative medicine · Jul 2015
ReviewConceptualising psychological distress in families in palliative care: Findings from a systematic review.
Adult palliative care patients and their family members experience significant psychological distress and morbidity. Psychosocial interventions adopting a systemic approach may provide a cogent model to improve the psychosocial care of families in palliative care. To facilitate design of these interventions, the construct of psychological distress in families in palliative care should be empirically derived. ⋯ Currently, there is a paucity of research examining distress informed by family systems theories. This review proposes that distress in families in palliative care can be conceptualised and illustrated within a tiered model of distress. Further research is merited to advance current explanatory frameworks and theoretical models of distress.