Researchers evaluate how to improve dignity for seriously ill patients

Hearing that you have a life-threatening illness can be physically and emotionally challenging. And while great strides have been made in helping people with a terminal illness manage their physical symptoms toward the end of their lives, helping them cope with the accompanying emotional distress is another story.

“There is a real need for therapeutic interventions that improve the ability of people to cope with these end-of-life emotional and psychological issues,” said Carma Bylund, Ph.D., a behavioral scientist in the University of Florida College of Medicine’s department of health outcomes and biomedical informatics and a member of the UF Health Cancer Center. For the past 20 years, Bylund has studied health care communication among care providers, caregivers and patients in cancer care.

Read more...

Diana Tonnessen May 16, 2022