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Easing Chronic Suffering: A Survey of Hospices Use of Complementary Therapy
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Overview:
Purpose: As older people live longer with chronic illnesses that require ongoing management of disease processes and attendant symptoms, having a wide array of treatments and services available becomes more important. This is especially true for services to help manage pain and symptoms at the terminal stages of chronic illnesses. Hospice services, when available, provide some relief from pain and suffering for people at this time of their lives. Increasingly health care consumers are requesting relief interventions that have been considered "complementary" to traditional medical interventions. These therapies are known to increase ease and healing, relieve pain, and improve quality of life; outcomes especially relevant for rural elders with chronic illness at the end of their lives. Very little is known about what complementary therapies are used by or available to rural elders receiving hospice care. The purpose of the study is to better understand the use of complementary therapies in managing chronic conditions for rural elders at the end of their lives who are receiving hospice care. To achieve this purpose, hospice agencies in Nevada and Montana will be surveyed to determine what complementary therapies are being used by or available to their patients. Aims: The specific aims of this pilot study are to: (a) describe the nature and extent of complementary therapy services provided by hospices in Nevada and Montana for the diagnosis of cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease in the management of pain, and other concomitant symptoms, and (b) Identify disparities in services provided for urban and rural elders with chronic conditions enrolled in hospice services at the end of their lives. Methods: A descriptive survey design will be used. Surveys will be sent to all hospice administrators in Nevada and Montana (N=41). Descriptive statistics and content analysis will be used to summarize the survey questions addressing aim 1. Comparative analysis will be used to identify differences in services among rural and urban hospices (Aim 2). It is anticipated that results of this study will produce a richer and more in-depth understanding of the availability and use of complementary therapies by older adults, in particular older adults with chronic illness at the end of their lives associated with chronic illness at the end of life.
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[About the Center] [Pilot Program]
[Funded Research]
[Center
Investigators] [Center
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