PSYC 3170: lecture # 8 pt 3 (guest lecture)

dignity therapy

A therapeutic approach designed to enhance the sense of dignity in patients facing terminal illness by helping them articulate their life stories and values, fostering a sense of purpose and legacy.

psychosocial cancer care

• Psychologist

  • Assessment 

  • Individual therapy

  • Group therapy

• Child-life Specialist

• Psychiatrists

• Social workers

• Nurses / Mental Health Nurses

• Support groups

• Peer support

evidence on sense of dignitiy

• Loss of dignity was most common reason for hastening the death of the patient

• Fractured sense of dignity, more likely to report desire for death or loss of will to live

• Risk of fractured sense of dignity associated with “increased perceived change in appearance, increased sense of being a burden to others, increased dependency on others, increased pain intensity, and being an inpatient.”

overvieew of DT procedures

1. Determine eligibility

2. Explain/discuss DT

3. 1 or 2 sessions for DT protocol 

4. Outside the therapy: therapist transcribes and edits document

5. ~ 20-minute session to review transcript and edit

6. A session to present the final document

who maybe be eligible for DT

• Facing life-threatening or life-limiting circumstances

• Patient is interested in DT and feels motivated to take part

• The therapist speaks same language as patient

who is not considered for DT

• If too ill and not expected to live more than about 2 weeks

• Impaired cognitive ability, limiting the patient’s capacity to provide meaningful and reflective responses