Monday, October 16, 2023, 01:00
Greater well-being and better mood. These are the main conclusions of the latest evaluation that, coinciding with World Palliative Care Day, was presented by the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation’s program for Comprehensive Care for People with Advanced Illnesses. All of this after evaluating the effectiveness of the interventions of the Psychosocial Care Teams (EAPS) in Spain with data collected during 2021 and 2022.
The evaluation, promoted by the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation and carried out by the Palliative Care Chair of the University of Vic-Central of Catalonia, together with the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute, has a sample of 6,471 patients in a situation of advanced disease.
The average age of the people served is 73 years. Of the total, 52% are women and 48% men. 61% suffer from an oncological disease and 39% from another type of pathology.
One of the main conclusions of the evaluation driven by the program is the improvement in mood: on the first visit, 78% felt average or bad. After the intervention of the Psychosocial Care Teams (EAPS), this percentage is reduced to less than half.
The relevant aspect is that, after receiving psychological, social and spiritual care, 66% consider that their beliefs and values help them face the situation, since the strengths and resources that people in end-of-life situations have are reinforced. .
The feeling of sadness also improves after psychosocial intervention. On the first visit, about 50% of people felt quite or very sad; after receiving care the percentage dropped to 17%. Overall, the program contributes to improving psychological dimensions (anxiety, depression, discomfort, suffering and insomnia); social (ability to relate and communicate with family and environment), plus those considered essential (spirituality, dignity, sense of peace and forgiveness, as well as degree of acceptance of the illness).
«This evaluation highlights the importance of a comprehensive view. All dimensions must be addressed in disease situations. Our objective as professionals is to contribute to ensuring that the closing of the biography occurs in the best conditions and that the care can be comprehensive in all cases, since all people deserve a serene and dignified end of life,” highlights Xavier Gómez. Batiste, professor of Palliative Medicine and scientific director of the program for Comprehensive Care for People with Advanced Illnesses of the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation.
A pioneering plan in constant innovation
For fourteen years, the program has offered quality care to people at the end of life and works to humanize care in situations of advanced chronicity and social vulnerability. At the end of this year it will be developed in all the provinces and in the two autonomous cities.
In the Region of Murcia, the program is developed by the Psychosocial Care Team (EAPS) belonging to the Hospital Order of San Juan de Dios; in Fundación Jesús Abandonado, which operates within three hospital centers (Morales Meseguer, Virgen de la Arrixaca and Los Arcos), as well as in four Home Care Support Teams (ESAD) and five residences (Domingo Sastre, Obispo Javier Azagra, San Basilio, Virgin of the Rosary, and Virgin of the Valley).
Framed in the Palliative Care Strategy of the National Health System, this program consolidates its mission of complementing the current model of care for people who are at the end of their life to cover the emotional, social and spiritual spheres of the patient and their family, such as grief care and support for palliative care professionals.
Since its launch in 2008, throughout the country as a whole, the program has served more than 650,000 people; that is, 290,181 patients and 372,630 family members, intervening in health centers, home teams and residences.
More than half of the users felt better after going through this system, in addition to reducing the feeling of sadness by 17%
With the help of the Ministry of Health and the different Health Ministries, this year the program has been consolidated, which will be implemented in all the provinces of the country through a total of 65 Psychosocial Care Teams made up of psychologists, social workers, nurses, doctors, pastoral agents and volunteers.
With its work of care, awareness, research and training, the program wants to contribute to making psychosocial and spiritual support at the end of life a right for all people.
Methodology with a contrasted evaluation
It is essential to evaluate the contribution of Psychosocial Care Teams to improving the well-being of people who are at the end of their life by analyzing the effectiveness of care.
To extract the results and carry out the analysis, the team of researchers has based itself on the model of attention to psychosocial needs (PSICPAL) and the use, among others, of the Psychosocial and Spiritual Needs Assessment scale (ENP- AND).
This has been designed and validated within this population group and is useful for the systematic evaluation and monitoring of psychosocial needs of people with advanced diseases or at the end of life in health, socio-health and social services.
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