Palliativpflege und Medizin

Abstrakt

A Qualitative Study on the Spiritual Psychotherapeutic Model of Health in End-of-Life Care

Manjusha Deka Saikia

The primary focus of palliative end-of-life care is not to prolong life, rather to deliver ‘quality of life.’ However, the absence of quality of life in the present scenario of palliative end of life care, India is consider as one among the worst place to die by many. Majority of the terminal ill patients died with unfulfilling wishes and without meeting their primary needs, which were the core components for quality of life and well-being. At present, the failure of Indian palliative end-of-life care in delivering holistic care and quality of life lies in confining itself mainly within the bio-medical realm, which does not value the biopsychosocial-spiritual model of health care in many cases. The absence of ‘mental well-being’ in defining health and the concept of health mainly to bodily well-being, also another factors that affect the effectiveness of palliative end-of-life care in the country, however, health is not the absence of physical illness alone. Thus, the failure of contemporary medicines in delivering total care for the well-being of the whole, gave rise to the needs for biopsychosocial-spiritual model of health care, which is the modern humanistic and holistic approach that viewed illness as the complex interplay between the biological, social, psychological, and the spiritual factors.

Aim: Considering the urgent needs of the whole person treatment in modern end-of-life care in the country, the present study is form with an aim to achieve the goal of patient quality of life by meeting the social, psychological, biological, and spiritual needs of the dying individual’s. The purpose of the study is also to let the doctors, nurses, and other caregivers to be effective communicators and an ethical practitioner of the art and sciences of modern holistic medicines, for holistic and quality care.

Method: The propose study will use philosophical inquiry basing on the existing literature’s, focusing mainly on the role of spirituality as a coping mechanism in meaning-making and a source of hope, when healing is not possible in the last hours experience of life for those with terminal illness.