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Knowledge Point Articles   

July 2007

End-of-Life Therapy Techniques Used in Hospice Care

Different types of emotional healing therapies may be used for hospice patients and families to enhance communication, decrease depression and pain, encourage personal insight and provide opportunities for reconciliation and empowerment. Various methods for grieving individuals and family members include art and other creative ideas to help with:

• Reconciling emotional conflicts
• Reducing anxiety
• Building self-awareness
• Solving problems
• Increasing self-esteem

During grief periods, the physical and emotional well being of the grieving individual will most likely be threatened. Professionals in grief counseling have done a great deal to address the value of therapeutic approaches, such as guided imagery and art, to handle the emotional stress of a terminal illness. It is very important to provide patients and grieving individuals with emotionally supportive interventions to assist with their impending loss.

One important way to help patients feel more at-home is to surround them with things they cherish. We encourage patients and their families to bring in pictures, photos, letters, music or any other significant objects to assist patients and families in making the final days as home-like as possible. These items may assist in life review, and most patients are very willing to share the memories and stories associated with those objects. It helps staff gain a clearer sense of who the person is and gives topics to use for sharing.

Letter writing can be a very easy yet significant way to leave behind words for loved ones. Patients are allowed to share with friends, family members and loved ones things they otherwise would not be able to verbalize. One grandmother wanted to write letters to her grandchildren to be shared with them at special moments in their lives. It was great to see the peace that came over her when she felt she had taken care of an important bit of unfinished business.

Commemoration is another way to show honor and respect for a hospice patient. We offer hand molds of the patients and their family members and/or loved ones. One particularly touching story involved a young father with a brain tumor who had three little girls, ages eight, five and three. This man was diagnosed with a brain tumor and decided to make hand molds with his daughters. The eldest girl loved the mold of her daddy’s hand holding hers. She took it in her backpack to school every day after he passed away and told me later that she had a piece of her daddy with her always.

Videos are another way to express how a patient is feeling. A 34-year-old mother who knew her days were numbered talked to me about how scared she was that her daughters would forget her and never really know their mother. We decided to make videos for each one of the girls, and she shared stories of their childhood to create memories with them. She then sent me shopping to find special gifts her husband could give to each of their daughters on their wedding days. After she accomplished these tasks, she was so much more at peace about her impending death.

Guided imagery and music are both used for comfort, relaxation, pain management and their calming effect. Guided imagery is good to use with people that are in pain or having difficulty relaxing; it slows the respiratory rate and can be used quite successfully. In my experience, music therapy has shown excellent results in managing patients’ pain.

There are few words to describe the variety of thoughts and emotions associated with grief, and individuals may need to utilize various means of communication and coping techniques to leave their legacies. It is our job as providers of hospice care to help ease patient anxieties about death and provide assistance to the family during their time of loss.

You can count on Briggs for bereavement and pastoral care products so you can focus your time and efforts on your patients and their families. Click here for more information about Briggs bereavement forms, or click here for information regarding Briggs pastoral care forms.

Cyndi Rohret RN, BSN, CHPN
Executive Director, Wesley Community Hospice

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