Basic Care

The objectives of the training on psychosocial care for patients are two-fold: (a) to facilitate the handling of emotional and spiritual concerns of patients and (b) to foster communication between formal and informal carers (i.e, families, healthcare professionals) and patients. Specifically, we will provide training on: 1) Life review: review the lives of patients and the families, and re-discover meanings, 2) Relationship reconciliation: facilitate spoken and unspoken communication, empathy, and the creation of emotionally positive exchanges between patients and family members, 3) Early preparation: facilitate the discussion of care preferences and end-of-life wishes, and the provision of emotional support in these difficult conversations, and 4) Information delivery: enhance competence of end-of-life care workers in providing disease-specific anticipatory guidance. Taken together, these training components will equip healthcare and social work professionals to assist patients and family members achieve a closure to their life experience while planning ahead for the future.