title: Consideration of hastening death among hospice patients and their families.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to describe hospice social workers' perceptions of cases where hospice patients or their family members expressed a desire to hasten the patient's death. Surveys were mailed to hospice social workers (n=212) in two Southeastern states. Response rate was 36%. Of the 73 respondents, 56.2% had a patient and 26.1% had a patient's family member express a desire to hasten the patient's death. Most patients had a cancer diagnosis (70.4%) and were predominantly male (66.6%), white (94.4%), and were married/had a partner (66.7%). Poor quality of life (28.3%) and concern for suffering (28.3%) were the most common reasons reported for the request to hasten death. These data suggest that the desire for hastened death is not uncommon among hospice patients. Social workers perceive these requests to be related primarily to unmet needs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157-1087, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth Mayfield
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Arnold
authors.forename: Katherine Abbott
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Artin
authors.forename: Judi Lund
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Person
authors.forename: Devin L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Griffith
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys / Q000379:methods; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D012947:Social Work / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017236:Suicide, Assisted / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology