An examination of advanced cancer caregivers? support provided by staff interventions at hospices in Argentina

LUXARDO, N., BRAGE, E. & ALVARADO, C

ecancer

ECANCER

Año: 2012 vol. 6 p. 1 - 10

1097-0142

The aim of the study was to describe the type of intervention provided by hospice staff in order to address the pragmatic, psycho-social and spiritual needs of home-caregivers for patients in the last stage of cancer. The qualitative inquiry was carried out in real contexts. The explicit demands that caregivers (n=40) identified in the first interviews were: 1) helping to organize the care of the patient at home; 2) unspecific demands, with unclear or unrealistic purposes (e.g., curative treatment or a miracle?s expectative to occur); 3) specific resources (such as formal caregivers to replace them) and 4) a place to leave the patient either for a temporary period (a respite for the family) or in a permanent way. The main issues discussed were the delays in the patients? referral to the hospice and the lack of time for long-term interventions; the explicit focus placed on the care by addressing spiritual and emotional caregivers? needs, unlike in hospitals settings where professionals avoid discussions of spiritual needs due to a lack of time, inadequate training and poor understanding of spirituality; the particular hospice?s interventions based upon an ethos similar to the original Christian spirit of the hospice movement with the emphasis placed on qualities of care such as love, charity and compassion besides expertise and end-of-life competence and caregivers? sense of abandonment by health and social security systems after the referral.