Family Communication at the End of Life

Keeley, Maureen P.

doi:10.3390/bs7030045

Cited by 53 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Limited communication can result in family conflicts 45 . Communication may help family members to come together and talk about what is on their minds, which often results in less stress 46 . However, it is important to consider each family member's standpoint, as this paper found that family members within the same family often have differing perceptions of family communication.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Much is left unspoken: Self‐reports from families in pediatric oncology

Lövgren

Udo

Alvariza

et al. 2020

Pediatric Blood & Cancer

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Background: Communication about illness-related subjects is complex and difficult. To support entire families in pediatric oncology, health care professionals need to know what family members think, but leave unspoken. The aim of this study was to explore how families in pediatric oncology experienced illness-related information and communication with professionals and within the family. Procedure: A cross-sectional web survey was used. Families were recruited from one pediatric oncology center in Sweden, 2-3 months after diagnosis. One hundred eighteen family members (ill children, siblings, and parents) representing 27 families filled out age-adapted surveys. Results: Eighty-six percent of the parents and 71% of the siblings reported that they had not received enough or any information about how the cancer and its treatment could affect the child's psychological health. The families reported that they did not dare ask professionals questions about psychosocial issues and future-related subjects. Nor did they talk with one another, even though 55% of the parents and 24% of the children wanted to reveal more about how they felt to someone in the family. The parents reported the lowest family communication, and few families had all members reporting the same perception of family communication. Conclusions: Much is still left unspoken in pediatric oncology and the needs of the families are prominent. Assessments of each family member's needs might form a basis for professionals to give each person adequate information and family support. An increased awareness in families about family members' different needs might lead to mutual understanding.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Much is left unspoken: Self‐reports from families in pediatric oncology

Lövgren

Udo

Alvariza

et al. 2020

Pediatric Blood & Cancer

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“…Prior to 2004, scholars exploring familial interactions in the midst of death and dying primarily focused on the perspective of the terminally ill person [ 2 ]. It is only within the last fourteen years that a focus on the “other” person (i.e., family members or close others), through the participation in final conversations, has been explored [ 3 ]. Findings suggest that final conversations have the potential to have a tremendous impact on family relationships (biological, legal, or chosen families) [ 1 , 4 ].…”

Section: Summary Of Final Conversations Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Final conversations often give terminally ill people the opportunity to help their family members move forward after the death by providing advice, direction and permission to move on, as well as creating a sense of closure and completion of the relationship [ 1 , 2 ]. It is only through communication that terminally ill people and their family members can work together to achieve greater meaning about life, death, and their relationships [ 3 ].…”

Section: Summary Of Final Conversations Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While constructing the scale, the a priori decision was made to include scale items that measured instrumental talk, which includes discussions regarding the death and dying process (e.g., discussions about the illness, funerals, chores to be completed after the death, etc.). Although this theme did not emerge during the qualitative interviews, we argued that this theme is an important, yet potentially neglected topic of conversation during the EOL journey [ 3 ]. A possible explanation for why instrumental talk did not emerge during in-depth interviews is because participants did not recall those conversations as memorable or significant to the relationship.…”

Section: Summary Of Final Conversations Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Final Conversations: Overview and Practical Implications for Patients, Families, and Healthcare Workers

Keeley

Generous

2017

Behavioral Sciences

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The current paper presents a summary of a 12-year body of research on final conversations, which will be useful for healthcare providers who work with patients and family nearing the end-of-life, as well as for patients and their family members. Final conversations encompass any and all conversations that occur between individuals with a terminal diagnosis and their family members (all participants are aware that their loved one is in the midst of the death journey). Final conversations take the family member’s perspective and highlights what are their memorable messages with the terminally ill loved one. In this paper the authors highlight the message themes present at the end-of-life for both adults and children, the functions each message theme serves for family members, and lastly, the communicative challenges of final conversations. Additionally, the authors discuss the current nature and future of final conversations research, with special attention paid to practical implications for healthcare providers, patients, and family members; also, scholarly challenges and future research endeavors are explored.

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“…This presents challenges to the relationships among bereaved family members, who struggle to understand the grief of their relatives (Bosticco & Thompson, 2005; Sedney, Baker, & Gross, 1994). Despite the relational implications of family death, challenges associated with studying bereavement have limited the capacity of past research, which has primarily centered the individual (Bosticco & Thompson, 2005; Keeley, 2017; Traylor, Hayslip, Kaminski, & York, 2003). Though valuable, these studies do not fully capture the interdependence of the family system and are thus unable to comprehend the extent to which individual experiences with loss impact the relationships between surviving family members.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Parent–child relationships following spousal/parental death: An application of relational turbulence theory

Droser

2019

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

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The death of a family member is a difficult experience. Although implications of loss are felt on intra- and interpersonal levels, little is known about how it affects the relational functioning of surviving family members, and in particular the parent–child relationship. Using data collected from 144 bereaved parent–child dyads, this study examined how the divergent experiences of spousally bereaved parents and parentally bereaved children impact the parent–child relationship following spousal/parental death. Drawing from relational turbulence theory (RTT), experiences with relational uncertainty and interference from a partner were explored. Findings indicate that parent–child pairs experience different types of relational uncertainty and interference from a partner and that within-dyad disagreement on these experiences can increase the amount of uncertainty and interference from a partner that an individual faces. This study extends RTT and demonstrates its generalizability to the parent–child relationship.

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Family Communication at the End of Life

Cited by 53 publications

References 33 publications

Much is left unspoken: Self‐reports from families in pediatric oncology

Much is left unspoken: Self‐reports from families in pediatric oncology

Final Conversations: Overview and Practical Implications for Patients, Families, and Healthcare Workers

Parent–child relationships following spousal/parental death: An application of relational turbulence theory

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