Psychiatric Aspects of Terminal Illness

It is universally acknowledged that, in order to provide optimum care to the dying and improve the quality of remaining life, the care team must recognize the emotional needs of the terminally ill and be able to offer effective psychological care. But what is effective psychological care and how is it achieved in this extraordinarily difficult situation? Based primarily on the personal experiences and studies of 48 outstanding workers in the caring profession, the book examines the matter and manner of psychological care within four categories - the impact of terminal illness on the health care team; the impact of terminal illness on the patient and family; psychiatry and the dying patient; and psychiatric patients with terminal illness. This book may be of value to all those who provide emotional, social and spiritual help to the seriously or terminally ill.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 The impact of terminal illness on the health care team: confronting terminal illness - the training of a physician, Donald Sherak; medical care of the dying patient - physicians' attitudes and behavior, Irwin Gerber; physicians' attitudes toward death and bereavement - comparison of psychiatrists and non-psychiatrists, David Peretz et al; caring for the terminally ill - attitudes of the house staff, John G.Bruhn et al; fatal illness - what should the patient be told?, Norman B.Levy; death in the hospital - some thoughts on Mrs E, Mark Body. Part 2 The impact of terminal illness on the patient and family: the importance of discussing death with the dying, Irene B.Seeland; psychiatry and the challenge of the life threatened patient, Arthur C.Carr; control versus passivity in the face of terminal illness, Samuel C.Klagsbrun; differences in perception of life threatening illness, Richard Blacher and Jonathan Schindelheim; the chronically ill adolescent, Margaret Grey; death anxiety and exposure to one's mortality, David F.Cella; psychological factors that affect life threatened patients, Leonard M.Liegner; dilemma of the dying - "why won't people listen to me?", Rae Ellen S.Stager; the grieving process, Raymond Vickers. Part 3 Psychiatry and the dying patient: psychiatric assessment and management of the dying patient, Hyman L.Muslin; psychiatric care of dying patients with head and neck cancer, Peter A.Shapiro; the life threatened patient in the long term care facility, D.Peter Birkett; the girl without a face, part 1, Kenneth R.Liegner; the girl without a face, part 2 - team intervention, Patricia M.Reddish; nursing care and terminal illness, Jeanne Quini Benoliel; psychiatric hospitalization of a suicidal teenager dying of cancer - systems issues, Richard Friedman et al; dementia in the cancer patient, Mary Anne Zubler; the influence of societal factors on life threatened existences, Marcella Bakur Weiner and William Weiner; towards a cartography of thanatology, Alan Fertziger. Part 4 Psychiatric patients with terminal illness: life threatening illness and psychiatric patient, Marilyn Lewis Lanza; the borderline patient with life threatening illness, Virginia R.Crespo; the psychiatric patient with aids, Robert S.Lampke; the challenge of providing home care for the life threatened psychiatric patient, Jodie A.Emery; reactions of therapists to the death of elderly patients in psychotherapy, Theresa A.Ladero.