Sense of support within the family: a cross-sectional study of family members in palliative home care

Abstract

Background: Despite evidence that family members' support to each other can be of importance to its members, there are limited studies of factors related to family members' sense of such support during palliative care. Aim: Based on the family systems approach, we evaluated which factors were associated with family members' sense of support within their closest family in a palliative home care context and developed a model that predicts such sense of support. Design: A cross-sectional design was used. We interviewed 209 adult family members (69% of eligible) of adult patients with expected short survival receiving palliative home care. Methods: Generalised linear models were used to evaluate individual factors related to family members' sense of support within their closest family during palliative care. The Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) was applied in the model-building analyses. Results: Nineteen variables were identified that were significantly associated with the family members' sense of support within the closest family. Model building selected six variables for predicting this sense of support (decreasing Wald values): family member perceiving support from other more distant family members; feeling secure with the provided palliative home care; possibility of respite if family member needed a break; family member living alone; being a child of the patient (inverse relationship); perceiving that the patient was supported by other family members. Conclusions: Our findings support clinical application of the Family Systems Theory in the context of palliative care. The factors identified may be of value in assisting practitioners in detecting and treating family members sensing a low level of support within the closest family.

“Starting to think that way from the start": Approaching deprescribing decision-making for people accessing palliative care - a qualitative exploration of healthcare professionals views.

“…Considering the role that carers and family members play in supporting people in receipt of palliative care, [50][51][52][53] a greater understanding of shared patient-relative-clinician triad discussions about deprescribing would be useful to explore.…”

Availability and stability of palliative care for family members of terminally ill patients in an integrated model of health and social care

“…In order to assess the effect of palliative care in the integrated institution for health and social care, a series of questionnaires and validated scales were administered by study staff to patients’ family members, including Short Form-8 Health Survey (SF-8), Family Burden Scale of Diseases (FBSD), Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA), Distress Thermometer (DT) and an adapted problem list [ 20 , 24 , 34 ].…”

“…Even after losing consciousness, they remain subject to a variety of life-sustaining medical equipment and continue to receive traumatic treatment until the last moment of life, which makes the dying process painful [ 17 , 18 ]. At the same time, the family members also experience substantial burdens, including poor quality of life, heavy burdens of care, and psychological impact [ 19 , 20 ]. With the development of society, the requirement for the quality of life and the understanding of death continues to improve.…”

Family members’ long-term grief management: A prospective study of factors during ongoing palliative care and bereavement

“…There was no significant difference between family members who were interviewed preloss (N = 144) and postloss (N = 99) regarding age (63.7 vs. 62.6) and gender (male 46%, female 54% vs. male 47% and female 53%). The data were collected between September 2009 and October 2010 and have resulted in several previous papers (Krevers and Milberg 2015;Milberg et al 2014Milberg et al , 2019Milberg et al , 2020. Flow diagram.…”