JPM Article: What Patients and Caregivers Experience When They Receive Palliative Care - A Study Eliciting Metaphors That Could Shape Public Messaging
The Journal of Palliative Medicine (JPM) has published an article, "What Patients and Caregivers Experience When They Receive Palliative Care: A Study Eliciting Metaphors That Could Shape Public Messaging."
Researchers begin by establishing that many people can benefit from palliative care but don't receive services because of their lack of awareness or misconceptions. They note a barrier to widespread public messaging is the scarcity of messages developed with empirical research in public perceptions of the lived experience of receiving palliative care.
The article discusses research aimed at identifying "deep metaphors" related to palliative care, to provide an empirical foundation for further creative work. The research provides guidance for message developers on frames, language and visuals for future campaigns designed to create public interest in palliative care.
There were four main themes that emerged from this qualitative study:
- Participants experienced the onset of serious illness as a massive disruption.
- What serious illness ‘‘took away’’ from them was a sense of certainty about where their lives were going.
- What participants felt in need of, to counter what had been taken away, was provided by palliative care in the following ways:
- Validation for what they were going through, with a sense of connection and of feeling heard because ‘‘It’s not just all about the medical, [my doctor] treats me as a whole person’’;
- Agency to determine their own quality of life and have input into their care, realizing ‘‘There is power in this illness, but its power is how much I give it over me’’;
- Guidance to access a network of resources, not from a doctor giving you ‘‘prescriptions from on high’’ but with clinicians as people you work with to determine your care; and
- Regeneration of their self-worth resulting in a new version of their identity: ‘‘I’m working towards something and finding beauty in it.’’
- Overall participants explained that while illness takes, palliative care gives.
Go to the abstract.
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