Health Psych Session 4- Palliative Care And Sexual Behaviour

Question 1

List the aims of palliative care

Answer 1

Provide pain and symptom relief
Affirm life and regard dying as a normal process
Integrate psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care
Support patients to live as actively as possible until death
Support the family to cope during patents illness and then death

Question 2

What is the main difficulty with getting an accurate sexual history and how can this be overcome?

Answer 2

The term ‘sex’ may mean different things to different people so use specific terms for sexual behaviours and check the patient understands them

Question 3

What is the NATSAL survey?

Answer 3

National survey of sexual attitudes and lifestyles- it is the main source of information in the UK about sexual behaviour

Question 4

Why is it difficult to get accurate information about sexual behaviour?

Answer 4

People may be embarrassed/reluctant to report their sexual behaviours to an interviewer
May not be able to recall all their sexual encounters
Sampling problems- under 16s and over 75s not included
- do not know about behaviour of those who declined to take part

Question 5

What are the implications of diversity in sexual behaviour?

Answer 5

There’s no such thing as normal- what is normal for one person might not be for another. What may be thought of as not normal may be quite common