Clinical correlates of the wish to hasten death among the terminally ill

Funded Activity Summary

There is little research that has directly examined the role of the health professional in a patient's wish to die and the implications of this for the support and development of services to provide care to a dying patient. The aim of this study is to examine factors in the health service, clinical care and social environment that influence the wish to hasten death among terminally ill patients. This is an issue of increasing importance in our community as legislative change is undertaken to enable assisted suicide in the terminally ill. In particular, there is very limited published research on these issues which have accessed a subject pool of patients who are based in services that specifically provide care for the terminally ill. A specific focus of this study is to examine the factors within the doctor-patient relationship that may influence a patient's wish to hasten death. The doctor's experience of subjective burden in caring for a dying patient, level of confidence in patient management and features of the doctor-patient relationhip will be assessed. This will essentially be an exploratory study which will attempt to establish methodologies that will help to increase an understanding of why some patients request euthanasia, thus leading to the establishment of sound management strategies, as well as contribute empirical data to the euthanasia debate.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2001

End Date: 01-01-2001

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $131,360.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Psychiatry

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

cancer | consultation-liaison psychiatry | depression / anxiety | doctor-patient communication | euthanasia | palliative / hospice care | palliative care | terminal illness

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