Exploring Mortality with Patients Under End-of-Life Care

Exploring Mortality with Patients Under End-of-Life Care and their Families
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Exploring Mortality with Patients Under End-of-Life Care and their Families
Reaching patients under end-of-life care often demands exploring the grim conversation of mortality. Such times are difficult for both the patient and their families. Therefore, there is a need for the helping professional to step in and offer support for both parties. While both parties are members of the same family, their perspectives on the issue of mortality may differ, and a helping professional must recognize this difference in need.
Helping Individual Patients Explore Mortality
While no one conversation can adequately dispel any natural fears of mortality and its acceptance, evidence suggests that a personal-professional connection between the helper and the patient is critical in discussing such issues with emotional significance (Katz & Johnson, 2016). Such a therapeutic relationship helps the helping professional to have a rich understanding of the patient’s experiences. Literature suggests that help professionals should also develop a relationship of discovery with the individual in their discussions and interactions. Gawande (2014) offers a model where both the patient and the helping professional embark on a discovery journey of figuring out how to face mortality while preserving their understanding of the meaning of life (Gawande, 2014).
Helping professionals can invite their patients to share how they interpret their experiences. However, they must recognize that they only have a piece of the information when having such conversations. Therefore, as helpers try to weave together the patient’s lived experiences and their professional expertise, they must take an interest in understanding the patient’s story in a curious but respectful manner (Katz & Johnson, 2016). Put differently, the helper has the responsibility to listen to their patient while understanding that they also hold essential knowledge and that their contributions are critical in helping them accept mortality.
However, to effectively execute this role, the helping professional must first confront their natural fears about mortality and eliminate barriers between themselves and the patient. This self-awareness approach will be instrumental in initiating an open discussion with the patient about their mortality issues (Katz & Johnson, 2016). There is also the issue of countertransference even among helpers who are self-aware and have minimal fears of mortality. Clark (2018) posits that awareness of countertransference allows the helper to face their f...