“Calendarium Vitae” for Hospice Patients and their Caregivers: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Although palliative care is designed to provide holistic comfort care and support, several patients still experience loss of purpose in life, and suffer from distress, sadness, anxiety, or decreased quality of life (QoL). To address these unmet needs, novel interventions, focused on psychosocial sources of distress, in hospice patients are needed. One such intervention is dignity therapy (DT), defined as a brief, individualized psychotherapy, applied for the purpose of relieving psychological distress at the end of life. "Calendarium Vitae" (CV) as a form of DT represents a feasible, safe, and effective, patient-friendly approach, targeting end-of-life psychological issues. In particular, DT can alleviate suffering and distress, help preserve psychophysical integrity, and support caregivers, during the bereavement period. This pilot study is designed to collect preliminary data, prior to conducting a larger randomized controlled trial (RCT) that will investigate the correlations of DT intervention with QoL, and possible reduction of distress and suffering, in the Eastern and Central European hospice patients (and their caregivers). Since DT is unknown in this part of Europe, the proposed pilot study, followed by RCT, will be the first step on the way to explore the DT intervention in research, among the vulnerable hospice patient population.