The role of psychological support for pain in palliative care

This review examines the contention that palliative care offers a restricted level of service to the community if it does not formally incorporate the psychological support of dying patients and their families in routine terminal care. The attributional model of responsibility for problems and solutions proposed by Brickman and colleagues (1982) is used to encapsulate the difference between a traditional medical role for patients compared with a more satisfactory psychological orientation, whereby the dynamic participation· of patients and families in the treatment of the final days of life is strengthened. Use of alternative therapies is suggested as one method by which this could be achieved. This review suggests that at the present time, in Tasmania and possibly further afield, the contribution to palliative care which psychologists are capable of making is insufficiently utilised. They are able to provide a much needed resource at a time when treatment of terminal illness is moving beyond physical care towards a more holistic approach to patient care in order to maximise the quality of the last stages of life.