End of living: maintaining a lifeworld during terminal illness

End of living: maintaining a lifeworld during terminal illness

Wrubel J; Acree M; Goodman S; Folkman S

Psychology & Health

2009

Female; Humans; Male; Adult; Interviews as Topic; Questionnaires; Aged; Middle Aged; Attitude to Death; Terminally Ill/psychology; Neoplasms/psychology; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/psychology; San Francisco; New York City

The narrative responses of 32 people with AIDS or cancer with survival prognoses of 6 months to a year to monthly interview questions about their daily lives were analysed with a team-based qualitative methodology. Two groups emerged: (a) a Maintained Lifeworld Group characterised by one or more of the following: continued engagement with family, friends, and community; the ability to relinquish untenable goals and substitute new, realistic ones; engagement in spirituality and a spiritual practice; and, (b) a Lifeworld Interrupted Group characterised by one or more of the following: relocation just before or during the study, cognitive impairment, commitment to untenable goals, ongoing substance abuse. Understanding how people with a terminal illness can maintain a lifeworld and experience well-being while also managing the physical challenges of their illness could help inform the support offered by professional and family caregivers to improve care recipients' quality of life.

2009

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