Understanding Death With Limited Experience In Life: Dying Children's And Adolescents' Understanding Of Their Own Terminal Illness And Death

Title

Understanding Death With Limited Experience In Life: Dying Children's And Adolescents' Understanding Of Their Own Terminal Illness And Death

Creator

Bates Alan T; Kearney Julia A

Identifier

10.1097/SPC.0000000000000118

Publisher

Current Opinion In Supportive And Palliative Care

Date

2015

Subject

Adolescent; Attitude To Death; Child; Communication; Fear; Humans; Palliative Care/organization & Administration; Palliative Care/psychology; Professional-family Relations; Prognosis; Terminal Care/organization & Administration; Terminal Care/psychology; Terminally Ill/legislation & Jurisprudence; Terminally Ill/psychology; Time Factors

Description

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: An up-to-date summary of the literature on children's and adolescents' understanding of their own terminal illness and death. RECENT FINDINGS: Clinicians still find it difficult to speak with pediatric patients about death even though guidelines for facilitating communication on the topic exist. As a result, pediatric patients are less likely to develop a clear understanding of their illness and there is a disconnect between clinicians and parents about prognosis, even when clinicians have concluded there is no longer possibility for cure. Insufficient communication and poor understanding may increase the risk of patients feeling isolated, mistrustful and anxious, and deprive them of a role model who can communicate about painful issues or share difficult feelings. Despite these complexities, young people often show remarkable resiliency in the face of death and want to get the most out of the remaining time they have. SUMMARY: In addition to these most recent findings, this review examines the challenges in researching this topic, obstacles to patients receiving information about prognosis, and how physical symptoms affect patients' ability to develop an understanding. It also reviews sources of insight into pediatric patients' understanding including the development of concepts of death, fears about their own death, legal interpretations of what patients understand, and how terminally ill young people continue to treasure life. It concludes by addressing ways clinicians can use the knowledge we have to communicate well with dying children and adolescents and their families.

Rights

Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

Citation List Month

May 2017 List

Citation

Bates Alan T; Kearney Julia A, “Understanding Death With Limited Experience In Life: Dying Children's And Adolescents' Understanding Of Their Own Terminal Illness And Death,” Pediatric Palliative Care Library, accessed October 6, 2024, https://pedpalascnetlibrary.omeka.net/items/show/10924.