Patel, Manjula H. (2020) Compassionate communities approaches to end of life care as a therapeutic landscape. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

Life expectancy has increased to a record-high and, death has become more common in hospital settings than at home, reducing the experiences of death and dying in the community. The concept of public health palliative care combines two disciplines, one concerned with individual end of life care and, the other concerned with death and dying as a health issue at a population level. The emergence of public health approaches within palliative and end of life care has gained momentum, in particular compassionate communities as one of the components of the concept. However, there is limited evidence of how compassionate communities are being implemented. This thesis explores and extends the understanding of compassionate communities approaches in the UK. A qualitative case-study design includes three different research sites providing palliative care provisions, two are hospices and one is a community organisation. The main data collection methods include semi-structured interviews and focus groups with: people at end life (primary participants), family members, friends, volunteer befrienders and, health professionals.

Although, there are differences in the compassionate communities approaches across all three sites as defined by research participants this thesis has identified shared characteristics. The first characteristic is home as the preferred place of care with physical, social and psychological symbolic meanings; second of formal and informal care interface within and across inner and outer circles of care; third is the essential role of volunteer befriender within the inner circle of care strengthens the interface between formal and informal care. The relational aspect of and between formal and informal care is considered to be important. This thesis frames a compassionate communities approach within the theoretical framework of a therapeutic landscape, extending the understanding of a compassionate communities.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine R Medicine > RC Internal medicine R Medicine > RT Nursing
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Palliative treatment , Compassion, Public health, Community health services
Official Date:	September 2020
Dates:	Date Event September 2020 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Warwick Medical School
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Lewan-Hundt, Gillian ; Slowther, Anne-Marie
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	xii, 298 leaves : illustrations
Language:	eng

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