Sage Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care

This episode features researchers from the the University of Cologne (Germany) from the Faculty of Human Sciences and Faculty of Medicine, Graduate School GROW – Gerontological Research on Well-being, and also the Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, Department of Palliative Medicine. The researchers are Helena Kukla, Angélique Herrler, Dr Julia Strupp and Professor Raymomd Voltz. Awareness of one’s impending death can lead to existential distress, thus impairing psychological comfort and general well-being. Psychosocial support as an emerging need can alleviate symptoms of distress and enhance well-being. Research on behavioral and mental confrontation with one’s own end of life and its effects on measures of psychological comfort is limited. Evaluated approaches of confronting the own end of life can be grouped into psychosocial interventions, meaning-enhancing interventions, educational courses and experiential learning. The effects of evaluated approaches show a clear trend toward an increase in