chapter 12 (psychological issues in advancing and terminal illness)

Question 1

infant mortality rate

Answer 1

the number of infant deaths per thousand infants.

Question 2

sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

Answer 2

a common cause of death among infants, in which an infant simply stops breathing.

Question 3

premature death

Answer 3

death that occurs before the projected age of 81.

Question 4

euthanasia

Answer 4

ending the life of a person who has a painful terminal illness for the purpose of terminating the individual’s suffering.

Question 5

advance care directives

Answer 5

legal documents that can request that extraordinary life-sustaining procedures not be used if patients are unable to make this decision on their own; also known as “living wills.”

Question 6

palliative care

Answer 6

care designed to make the patient comfortable, but not to cure or improve the patient’s underlying disease; often part of terminal care.

Question 7

curative care

Answer 7

care designed to cure the patient’s disease.

Question 8

terminal care

Answer 8

medical care of patients who are terminally ill.

Question 9

thanatologists

Answer 9

those who study death and dying.

Question 10

clinical thanatology

Answer 10

the clinical practice of counselling people who are dying on the basis of knowledge of reactions to dying.

Question 11

symbolic immortality

Answer 11

the sense that one is leaving a lasting impact on the world, as through one’s children or one’s work, or that one is joining the afterlife and becoming one with god.

Question 12

dignity therapy

Answer 12

a process that aims to address concern or distress experienced in physical, psychosocial, spiritual, and existential domains to help rebuild dignity for a terminally ill patient. it involves interviewing the patient to produce a document that details important issues and anything that they would want remembered about themselves and their lives as death approaches.

Question 13

grief

Answer 13

a response to bereavement involving a feeling of hollowness and sometimes marked by preoccupation with the dead person, expressions of hostility toward others, and guilt over death; may also involve restlessness, inability to concentrate, and other adverse psychological and physical symptoms.

Question 14

hospice care

Answer 14

an alternative to hospital and home care, designed to provide warm, personal comfort for patients who are terminally ill; may be residential or home-based.

Question 15

hospice

Answer 15

an institution for patients who are dying that encourages personalized, warm, palliative care.

Question 16

home care

Answer 16

care for patients who are dying in he home; the choice of care for the majority of patients who are terminally ill, though somethings problematic for family members.