Maintaining dignity for patients approaching death is a core principle of palliative care. Dignity therapy, a psychological intervention developed by Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov and his internationally lauded research group, has been designed specifically to address many of the psychological, existential, and spiritual challenges that patients and their families face as they grapple with the reality of life drawing to a close. In the first book to lay out the blueprint for this unique and meaningful intervention, Chochinov addresses one of the most important dimensions of being human. Being alive means being vulnerable and mortal; he argues that dignity therapy offers a way to preserve meaning and hope for patients approaching death. With history and foundations of dignity in care, and step by step guidance for readers interested in implementing the program, this volume illuminates how dignity therapy can change end-of-life experience for those about to die - and for those who will grieve their passing.
This open access textbook represents a vital contribution to global health education, offering insights into health promotion as part of patient care for bachelor’s and master’s students in health care (nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiotherapists, social care workers etc.) as well as health care professionals, and providing an overview of the field of health science and health promotion for PhD students and researchers. Written by leading experts from seven countries in Europe, America, Africa and Asia, it first discusses the theory of health promotion and vital concepts. It then presents updated evidence-based health promotion approaches in different populations (people with chronic diseases, cancer, heart failure, dementia, mental disorders, long-term ICU patients, elderly individuals, families with newborn babies, palliative care patients) and examines different health promotion approaches integrated into primary care services. This edited scientific anthology provides much-needed knowledge, translating research into guidelines for practice. Today’s medical approaches are highly developed; however, patients are human beings with a wholeness of body-mind-spirit. As such, providing high-quality and effective health care requires a holistic physical-psychological-social-spiritual model of health care is required. A great number of patients, both in hospitals and in primary health care, suffer from the lack of a holistic oriented health approach: Their condition is treated, but they feel scared, helpless and lonely. Health promotion focuses on improving people’s health in spite of illnesses. Accordingly, health care that supports/promotes patients’ health by identifying their health resources will result in better patient outcomes: shorter hospital stays, less re-hospitalization, being better able to cope at home and improved well-being, which in turn lead to lower health-care costs. This scientific anthology is the first of its kind, in that it connects health promotion with the salutogenic theory of health throughout the chapters. the authors here expand the understanding of health promotion beyond health protection and disease prevention. The book focuses on describing and explaining salutogenesis as an umbrella concept, not only as the key concept of sense of coherence.
Finding Dignity at the End of Life discusses the need for palliative care as a human right and explores a whole-person methodology for use in treatment. The book examines the concept of palliative care as a holistic human right from the perspective of multiple aspects of faith, ideology, culture, and nationality. Integrating a humanities-based approach, chapters provide detailed discussions of spirituality, suffering, and healing from scholars from around the world. Within each chapter, the authors address a different cultural and religious focus by examining how this topic relates to questions of inherent dignity, both ethically and theologically, and how different spiritual lenses may inform our interpretation of medical outcomes. Mental health practitioners, allied professionals, and theologians will find this a useful and reflective guide to palliative care and its connection to faith, spirituality, and culture.
The individual and structural biases that affect the American healthcare system have serious emotional and physical consequences that all too often go unseen. These biases are often rooted in power, class, racial, gender or sexual orientation prejudices, and as a result, the injured parties usually lack the resources needed to protect themselves. In Healthcare and Human Dignity, individual worth, equality, and autonomy emerge as the dominant values at stake in encounters with doctors, nurses, hospitals, and drug companies. Although the public is aware of legal battles over autonomy and dignity in the context of death, the everyday patient’s need for dignity has received scant attention. Thus, in Healthcare, law professor Frank McClellan’s collection of cases and individual experiences bring these stories to life and establish beyond doubt that human dignity is of utmost priority in the everyday process of healthcare decision making.
One of Time’s 100 most influential people “shines a new light on the need for a holistic approach to caregiving in America . . . Timely and hopeful” (Maria Shriver). In The Age of Dignity, thought leader and activist Ai-jen Poo offers a wake-up call about the statistical reality that will affect us all: Fourteen percent of our population is now over sixty-five; by 2030 that ratio will be one in five. In fact, our fastest-growing demographic is the eighty-five-plus age group—over five million people now, a number that is expected to more than double in the next twenty years. This change presents us with a new challenge: how we care for and support quality of life for the unprecedented numbers of older Americans who will need it. Despite these daunting numbers, Poo has written a profoundly hopeful book, giving us a glimpse into the stories and often hidden experiences of the people—family caregivers, older people, and home care workers—whose lives will be directly shaped and reshaped in this moment of demographic change. The Age of Dignity outlines a road map for how we can become a more caring nation, providing solutions for fixing our fraying safety net while also increasing opportunities for women, immigrants, and the unemployed in our workforce. As Poo has said, “Care is the strategy and the solution toward a better future for all of us.” “Every American should read this slender book. With luck, it will be the future for all of us.” —Gloria Steinem “Positive and inclusive.” —The New York Times “A big-hearted book [that] seeks to transform our dismal view of aging and caregiving.” —Ms. magazine
This volume gathers the contributions of leading researchers in the fields of bioethics, medical law and human rights. By providing an interdisciplinary reading of advance directives regulation against the background of European and International law, this book aims to offer new insights into the most controversial legal issues surrounding the theme of dignity and autonomy at the end of life. Cross-cultural perspectives from Europe, the Americas, Australia and China offer a comparative analysis of legal approaches to end-of-life decision-making and care, including the hotly debated issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide, also giving an account of recent developments in domestic legislation and jurisprudence. Special focus is placed on the Italian legal system and its ongoing discussion on advance directives regulation.
The notion of quality of life has for several decades beenwell-established in ethical debate about health care and the careof older people. Dignity in Care for Older Peoplehighlights the notion of dignity within the care of the elderly,focusing on the importance of theoretical concepts. Primarily based on a Research Project, Dignity and Older Europeans,funded by the European Commission, this book provides a thoroughinvestigation of the concept of dignity and related concepts suchas quality of life and autonomy. It includes a chapter devoted tothe dignity of human embodiment, emphasizing the importance of thenotion of the lived body in the context of elderly care. As aresult of the conceptual study a model of dignity emerges in whichfour variants of dignity stand out: dignity of merit, dignity asmoral status, dignity of identity and Menschenwürde (thespecifically human value). From this follows a discussion of howthese variants of dignity can be used in characterizing the care ofthe elderly. The notions of dignity and dignified care arediscussed particularly in relation to demented persons and dyingpersons. The book also contains a chapter on the dignity of thedead person. International in focus, Dignity in Care for Older Peopleprovides a contemporary discussion of the care of older people, andwill be of use to qualified nurses and social care practitionersworking with older people, as well as those on ethics andgerontology courses.
Open up Dignity and Old Age, and you’ll find a wealth of thoughtful suggestions for how you and others can gain more respect and admiration for your relatives, neighbors, and patients who are in the latter stages of life. You’ll examine the word “dignity” as it relates to the world’s elderly population to the fullest and most challenging extent, taking into account cross-cultural, religious, and even literary influences. Throughout this provoking and thorough examination, you’ll tackle some tough questions, all of which will equip you with the theoretical and practical know-how needed to evoke change and preserve honorable relations with the elderly persons in your professional and personal relationships. The manner in which Dignity and Old Age will help you grow in your relationships with elderly people is twofold--ideally and practically. You’ll begin with a revitalizing discussion of concepts that revolve around dignity and the elderly, and from there you’ll move into the sphere of active practice, gleaning a wide variety of ways you can enhance your affairs with the elderly in health care, social services, government, and retirement entitlements and benefits. Specifically, you’ll find positive approaches in these and other areas: the dignity in old age the true meaning of “Quality of Life” in old age achieving respect for ethnic elders as a health care provider bringing spirituality and community together in the last stage of life forming a philanthropic, caring partnership between government and the elderly In this insightful volume, you’ll take an important step forward in creating a more dignified quality of life for the world’s elderly--today’s and tomorrow’s. Overall, you’ll gain the variety of perspectives necessary to ensure that everyone you come in contact with in casual, legal, leisure, and professional spheres will see you care enough to be concerned with the ideas and practices contained in Dignity and Old Age.
"A new ethics guideline for caregivers of "deeply forgetful people" and a program on how to communicate and connect based on 30 years of community dialogues through Alzheimer's organizations across the globe"--
