Coping with terminal illness: the experience of attending Specialist Palliative Day Care.
BACKGROUND
The provision of supportive and palliative care for people with life-shortening illness has been emphasized throughout Department of Health and National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) cancer guidance. However, the question of whether services are achieving this aim has been sparsely researched to date particularly in relation to Specialist Palliative Day Care (SPDC) services. The current study aims to explore the experiences of patients attending SPDC with regard to coping with a terminal illness.


METHODS
The views of 11 patients attending SPDC were explored using semistructured interviews. An exploratory methodology (Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis [IPA]) was used to analyze the data to allow for an in-depth investigation.


RESULTS
Emerging themes suggest that SPDC provides an environment in which patients are helped to cope with stressors through a sense of self, belonging, acceptance of the reality of death, and a focus on life.


CONCLUSIONS
This work provides a piece of the puzzle in the exploration of the processes underpinning attendance at SPDC from a patient's perspective. It suggests that SPDC provides an environment in which patients receive help in coping with terminal illness. In such an under researched area it provides an insight regarding SPDC attendance which can be built upon or challenged by future research.
Bradley
Sarah Elizabeth
SE
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom. sbradley95@gmail.com
Frizelle
Dorothy
D
Johnson
Miriam
M
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001293:Attitude to Death; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010166:Palliative Care; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011788:Quality of Life