Benefits and resource implications of family meetings for hospitalized palliative care patients : research protocol

Peter L. Hudson; Afaf Girgis; Geoffrey K. Mitchell; Jenny Philip; Deborah Parker; David Currow; Danny Liew; Kristina Thomas; Brian Le; Juli Moran; Caroline Brand

doi:10.1186/s12904-015-0071-6

Benefits and resource implications of family meetings for hospitalized palliative care patients : research protocol

Peter L. Hudson, Afaf Girgis, Geoffrey K. Mitchell, Jenny Philip, Deborah Parker, David Currow, Danny Liew, Kristina Thomas, Brian Le, Juli Moran, Caroline Brand

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: Palliative care focuses on supporting patients diagnosed with advanced, incurable disease; it is 'family centered', with the patient and their family (the unit of care) being core to all its endeavours. However, approximately 30-50 % of carers experience psychological distress which is typically under recognised and consequently not addressed. Family meetings (FM) are recommended as a means whereby health professionals, together with family carers and patients discuss psychosocial issues and plan care; however there is minimal empirical research to determine the net effect of these meetings and the resources required to implement them systematically. Methods: Cluster type trial design with two way randomization for aims 1-3 and health economic modeling and qualitative interviews with health for professionals for aim 4. Discussion: The research will determine whether FMs have positive practical and psychological impacts on the family, impacts on health service usage, and financial benefits to the health care sector. This study will also provide clear guidance on appropriate timing in the disease/care trajectory to provide a family meeting.

Original language	English
Article number	73
Number of pages	9
Journal	BMC Palliative Care
Volume	14
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-015-0071-6
Publication status	Published - 2015

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2015 Hudson et al. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Keywords

caregivers
family
palliative treatment
quality of life

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10.1186/s12904-015-0071-6

Cite this

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title = "Benefits and resource implications of family meetings for hospitalized palliative care patients : research protocol",

abstract = "Background: Palliative care focuses on supporting patients diagnosed with advanced, incurable disease; it is 'family centered', with the patient and their family (the unit of care) being core to all its endeavours. However, approximately 30-50 % of carers experience psychological distress which is typically under recognised and consequently not addressed. Family meetings (FM) are recommended as a means whereby health professionals, together with family carers and patients discuss psychosocial issues and plan care; however there is minimal empirical research to determine the net effect of these meetings and the resources required to implement them systematically. Methods: Cluster type trial design with two way randomization for aims 1-3 and health economic modeling and qualitative interviews with health for professionals for aim 4. Discussion: The research will determine whether FMs have positive practical and psychological impacts on the family, impacts on health service usage, and financial benefits to the health care sector. This study will also provide clear guidance on appropriate timing in the disease/care trajectory to provide a family meeting.",

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year = "2015",

doi = "10.1186/s12904-015-0071-6",

language = "English",

volume = "14",

journal = "BMC Palliative Care",

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T1 - Benefits and resource implications of family meetings for hospitalized palliative care patients : research protocol

AU - Hudson, Peter L.

AU - Girgis, Afaf

AU - Mitchell, Geoffrey K.

AU - Philip, Jenny

AU - Parker, Deborah

AU - Currow, David

AU - Liew, Danny

AU - Thomas, Kristina

AU - Le, Brian

AU - Moran, Juli

AU - Brand, Caroline

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - Background: Palliative care focuses on supporting patients diagnosed with advanced, incurable disease; it is 'family centered', with the patient and their family (the unit of care) being core to all its endeavours. However, approximately 30-50 % of carers experience psychological distress which is typically under recognised and consequently not addressed. Family meetings (FM) are recommended as a means whereby health professionals, together with family carers and patients discuss psychosocial issues and plan care; however there is minimal empirical research to determine the net effect of these meetings and the resources required to implement them systematically. Methods: Cluster type trial design with two way randomization for aims 1-3 and health economic modeling and qualitative interviews with health for professionals for aim 4. Discussion: The research will determine whether FMs have positive practical and psychological impacts on the family, impacts on health service usage, and financial benefits to the health care sector. This study will also provide clear guidance on appropriate timing in the disease/care trajectory to provide a family meeting.

AB - Background: Palliative care focuses on supporting patients diagnosed with advanced, incurable disease; it is 'family centered', with the patient and their family (the unit of care) being core to all its endeavours. However, approximately 30-50 % of carers experience psychological distress which is typically under recognised and consequently not addressed. Family meetings (FM) are recommended as a means whereby health professionals, together with family carers and patients discuss psychosocial issues and plan care; however there is minimal empirical research to determine the net effect of these meetings and the resources required to implement them systematically. Methods: Cluster type trial design with two way randomization for aims 1-3 and health economic modeling and qualitative interviews with health for professionals for aim 4. Discussion: The research will determine whether FMs have positive practical and psychological impacts on the family, impacts on health service usage, and financial benefits to the health care sector. This study will also provide clear guidance on appropriate timing in the disease/care trajectory to provide a family meeting.

KW - caregivers

KW - family

KW - palliative treatment

KW - quality of life

UR - http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/uws:33174

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JO - BMC Palliative Care

JF - BMC Palliative Care

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M1 - 73

ER -

Benefits and resource implications of family meetings for hospitalized palliative care patients : research protocol

Abstract

Open Access - Access Right Statement

Keywords

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