None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Dignity Therapy, a brief psychotherapeutic intervention based on empirical research into the concept of dignity at the end of life, has proven successful at increasing hope, sense of meaning and will to live in a palliative care population where most patients had cancer diagnoses (Chochinov, Hack et al. 2005). This study will establish the feasibility and acceptability of offering Dignity Therapy to the MND patient population, and measure associations of the intervention with increased hope, meaning and dignity. It will lay the groundwork for a possible future experimental study. This study will also examine what impact Dignity Therapy has on the MND family carer during the caring experience, specifically looking at whether Dignity Therapy with the patient is associated with an increase in hope or decrease in anxiety, depression and caregiver burden in the family carer. Previous Dignity Therapy studies focused on the intervention’s positive influence on the bereavement experience of family members, but did not look at how the intervention may affect the carer during the caring experience.
Interventions
Dignity Therapy is a brief, individualized psychotherapeutic intervention where people with terminal illness are offered the opportunity to create a generativity document, the Dignity Therapy transcript. In a recorded face-to-face interview guided by a counsellor, the patient is invited to recount aspects of their life they want remembered, find meaning and purpose to their life, and express final words or advice to their family and friends. The interview is transcribed and edited, and a final
Dignity Therapy is a brief, individualized psychotherapeutic intervention where people with terminal illness are offered the opportunity to create a generativity document, the Dignity Therapy transcript. In a recorded face-to-face interview guided by a counsellor, the patient is invited to recount aspects of their life they want remembered, find meaning and purpose to their life, and express final words or advice to their family and friends. The interview is transcribed and edited, and a final document is returned to the patient to share with others as they wish. This short-term therapy can be delivered in two to four sessions of 45 minutes to an hour over the course of a week or two, depending on the patient's desires and health status.
Sponsors
School of Psychology and Speech Pathology
Study design
Allocation
Non-randomised trial
Primary purpose
Treatment
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Persons diagnosed with MND/ALS able to provide informed consent and communicate in English. Family carers of persons diagnosed with MND who are accepted into the study and able to communicate in English.
Exclusion criteria
Persons unable to communicate in English and/or provide informed consent due to cognitive issues or illness severity
Outcome results
None listed