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Making sense of health and illness in palliative care: Volunteers' perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2010

Andrée Sévigny ,
S. Robin Cohen ,
Serge Dumont  and
Annie Frappier
Andrée Sévigny*
Affiliation:
Département de Médecine Familiale et de Médecine d'Urgence, Université Laval, Québec, Canada Departments of Oncology and Medicine, McGill University, Montréal, Canada École de Service Social, Université Laval, Québec, Canada Centre d'Excellence sur le Vieillissement de Québec, Québec, Canada
S. Robin Cohen
Affiliation:
Departments of Oncology and Medicine, McGill University, Montréal, Canada
Serge Dumont
Affiliation:
École de Service Social, Université Laval, Québec, Canada
Annie Frappier
Affiliation:
Centre d'Excellence sur le Vieillissement de Québec, Québec, Canada
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Andrée Sévigny, Hôpital St-Sacrement, 1050 Chemin Ste-Foy, Québec (Québec), G1S 4L8, Canada. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Objective:

To encourage communication and contribute to the palliative care movement's need for interdisciplinary care, this article offers to explore the stance of volunteers on two fundamental concepts, “health” and “illness,” as well as their related understanding of “palliative care.” Volunteers' understandings are then compared with the concepts put forth by the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA) in its “Model to Guide Hospice Palliative Care.”

Method:

Focus groups with volunteers, and individual interviews with coordinators from five selected palliative care community action organizations from across Canada, are used. A total of 65 participants from three Canadian provinces were interviewed.

Results:

Participants view illness as a subjective, multidimensional, and transformative experience that requires multiple adjustments. It is an impediment to personal equilibrium and a challenge for the terminally ill and their close ones. Health, on the other hand, is a complex phenomenon that consists of physical, psychological, social, and spiritual well-being. For participants, health is most often embodied by a person's capacity to adjust to their challenging circumstances. Both volunteers and coordinators see palliative care as an alternative approach to care that centers on helping patients and their families through their ordeal by offering comfort and respite, and helping patients enjoy their life for as long as possible.

Significance of Results:

Participants describe illness as a destabilizing loss and palliative care as a means to compensate for the numerous consequences this loss brings; their actions reflect these principles and are compatible with the CHPCA model.

Keywords

HealthIllnessPalliative CareVolunteeringMeaning
Type
Original Articles
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , September 2010 , pp. 325 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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