Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T03:01:51.040Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bereaved spouses' adjustment after the patients' death in palliative care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2007

Maria E. Carlsson  and
Ingrid M. Nilsson
Maria E. Carlsson*
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
Ingrid M. Nilsson
Affiliation:
Sjukvårdsteamet Kronparksgården, Uppsala, Sweden
*
Corresponding author: Maria E. Carlsson, Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, Döbelnsgatan 2 S 752 37 Uppsala, Sweden. E-mail: maria.carlsson@pubcare.uu.se
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objectives:

To improve the support to bereaved spouses during the year after the patient's death, a project was started consisting of three visits by a nurse (after 1, 3, and 13 months) with conversations about the patient's death and the spouse's life situation. The aim of this study was to describe the bereaved spouse's situation and adaptation during the first year after the loss.

Methods:

Spouses of patients cared for by The Advanced Home Care Team (APHCT) in Uppsala, Sweden, were invited to participate in the project. Each participant was encouraged to talk freely about his or her situation, but enough direction was given to ensure that all items listed on a standardized questionnaire were covered.

Results:

Fifty-one spouses met the inclusion criteria and were invited to participate and 45 accepted. The subjects felt quite healthy but were tired and suffered from sleep disturbance. The grief reactions had initially been high but showed a significant decline from 1 to 13 months (p < .01). Forty-nine percent had experienced postbereavement hallucinations.

Significance of results:

This study showed that the bereaved spouses felt quite healthy and adjusted quite well to their new life situation, after the patient's death in a palliative care setting. The grief reactions had initially been high but showed a significant decline during the year.

Keywords

Palliative careBereaved spousesAdaptationHealthGrief reactions
Type
Research Article
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , December 2007 , pp. 397 - 404
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Beck-Friis, B. (1993). Hospital based home care of terminally ill cancer patients. The Motala model. Thesis, Uppsala University.Google Scholar
Bromberg, M.H. & Higginson, I. (1996). Bereavement follow-up: What do palliative support teams actually do? Journal of Palliative Care, 12, 12–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, P. (2005). Bereaved caregivers' descriptions of sleep: Impact on daily life and the bereavement process. Oncology Nursing Forum, 32, E70–E75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chentsova-Dutton, Y., Shucter, S., Hutchin, S., et al. (2002). Depression and grief reactions in hospice caregivers: From pre-death to 1 year afterwards. Journal of Affective Disorders, 69, 53–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chentsova-Dutton, Y. & Zisook, S. (2005). Adaptation to bereavement. Death Studies, 29, 877–903.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eriksson, E., Somer, S., & Lauri, S. (2001). How relatives adjust after the death of a patient with cancer in hospice. Cancer Nursing, 24, 436–445.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fakhoury, W., McCarty, M., & Addington-Hall, J. (1997). Carers' health status. Is it associated with their evaluation of the quality of pallaitive care? Scandinavian Journal of Social Medicine, 25, 296–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faschingbauer, T.R., Zisook, S., & De Vaul, R. (1987). The Texas Revised Inventory of Grief. In Biopsychosocial Aspects of Bereavement. Progression in Psychiatry, Zisook, S. (ed.), pp. 109–124. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.Google Scholar
Gilbar, O. (1998). Length of cancer patients' stay at a hospice: Does it affect psychological adjustment to the loss of the spouse? Journal of Palliative Care, 14, 16–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimby, A. (1993). Bereavement among elderly people, grief reactions, postbereavement hallucinations and quality of life. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 87, 72–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grimby, A. (1998). Utveckling av stöd- och rådgivningsenhet för äldre nyblivna änkepersoner. Medicinsk, psykologisk och social intervention under Året efter förlusten. Slutrapport till Socialstyrelsen. (Spriline - U 30385).Google Scholar
Grimby, A. (1999). Stöd och rådgivning underlättar i sorgen. Interventionsprojekt bland äldre nyblivna änkor och änklingar i Göteborg. Läkartidningen, 96, 1838–1842.Google Scholar
Lindemann, E. (1944). Symptomatology and management of acute grief. American Journal of Psychiatry, 15, 155–160.Google Scholar
Miller, M.A. & Rahe, R.H. (1997). Life changes scaling for the 1990. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 43, 279–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, P., Suddeth, J., Peterson, P., et al. (1985). Hallicinations of widowhood. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 33, 543–547.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rees, W. (1971). The hallucination of widowhood. British Medical Journal, 4, 37–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ringdal, G., Jordhoy, M., Ringdal, K., et al. (2001). Factors affecting grief reactions in close family members to individuals who have died of cancer. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 22, 1016–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rollison, B. & Carlsson, M. (2002). Evaluation of advanced home care (AHC). The next-of-kins' experiences. European Journal of Oncology Nursing, 6, 100–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tedeschi, R.G. & Caloun, L.G. (1996). The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory: Measuring the positive legacy of trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9, 455–471.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Valdimarsdottir, U., Helgason, A.R., Fürst, C.J., et al. (2002). The unrecognised cost of cancer patients' unrelieved symptoms: A nationwide follow-up of the surviving partners. British Journal of cancer, 86, 1540–1545.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Valdimarsdottir, U., Helgason, A.R., Fürst, C.J., et al. (2003). Long-term efffects of widowhood after terminal cancer: A Swedish nationwide follow-up. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 31, 31–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valdimarsdottir, U., Helgason, A.R., Fürst, C.J., et al. (2004). Awareness of husband's impending death from cancer and long-term anxiety in widowhood: A nationwide follow-up. Palliative Medicine, 18, 432–443.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Valdimarsdottir, U., Helgason, A.R., Fürst, C.J., et al. (2005). Need for and access to bereavement support after loss of a husband to urologic cancers: A nationwide follow-up of Swedish widows. Scandinavian Journal of Urology and Nephrology, 39, 271–276.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
World Health Organization Expert Committee on Cancer Pain and Active Support Care. (1990). Cancer pain relief and palliative care: Report of a WHO expert committtee. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar