Objective
The terminal phase of cancer represents a major crisis for the family system. Regardless of the caregiving role they undertake, family members are forced to address multiple impacts when facing the approaching death of their terminally ill loved one. International guidelines recognize the importance of integrating the family into a care plan. However, more needs to be known about how to deliver optimal family support. The purpose of this study is to review the current state of the art in family/caregiver-focused interventions of people with terminal cancer in palliative care.
Method
For this purpose, an overview of the literature's systematic reviews on the topic was conducted to select Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) on family/caregiver-focused interventions.
Results
Nine interventions were found in the systematic reviews of literature and meta-analysis. These family/caregiver-focused interventions were then thoroughly and critically analyzed. Despite the heterogeneity with regard to their characteristics, the interventions commonly focused on caregiving matters, were brief in duration, and delivered by non-mental health experts. The efficacy of such interventions was seen as modest.
Significance of results
Family/caregiver-focused interventions in palliative care remain a matter of concern and more research is needed to identify adequate and effective ways of helping families that face the crisis of terminal illness in the system.
The article describes how psychosocial support, in the immediate and mid-term disaster response for Haitian earthquake survivors in hospitals in the Dominican Republic, ameliorated some of the suffering and prevent the crisis from becoming crystallised into symptoms and complex grief. The support was centred on (1) providing information; (2) facilitating social regulation of emotions; (3) supporting a social support network for the patient; (4) focusing coping efforts; and (5) normalization of reactions. Finally it is described how the crisis made values of caring, compassion and responsibility expressed and shown by the survivors.
En el presente trabajo se desarrolla lo que son las Intervenciones en Redes Sociales. Se parte del estudio de lo que es el Apoyo Social (Apoyo Social) y sus relaciones con la Salud Mental, sentando con ello las bases empíricas que justifiquen su uso terapéutico. A continuación se analiza lo que es una red social y sus características y, finalmente, se abordan distintas formas de intervenir en redes, completando el análisis con un estudio de diferentes taxonomías de intervenciones.
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