A description and analysis of the function and meaning of hospice : a community development study
Date
1986
Authors
Tomasson, Olivia Lena
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The Mid-Island Hospice Society is a registered, non-profit society in Nanaimo, British Columbia. It was organized at the community level by local people <including the writer) between November 1979 and December 1981.
The objective of this study is to describe and analyze the development of the Mid-Island Hospice Society, and its efforts to change the health care system in Nanaimo. The study utilizes Jack Rothman's (1974) social reform model as a guide.
The application of the Rothman framework in Chapter 5 makes it clear that the purposes of the study are to (a) describe and analyze how the Mid-Island Hospice came into being, and to (b) elucidate its efforts to change health care for the terminally ill.
This study is based on various printed data as well as interviews with the two persons closely associated with the writer during the Hospice's organization and implementation period.
It was found the overall contribution of the Mid-Island Hospice Society was to humanize the dying process. The Nanaimo hospice group identified the sources of the terminally ill person's dehumanization-physical pain, emotional and psychological discomfort and social isolation. For each of these problems, the hospice organizers proposed solutions: for the problem of physical pain, they brought in a medical expert to educate the local physicians and nurses, and they facilitated a closer working relationship between the hospital team and home-care nurses. For the problem of psychological pain and social isolation, they set up the hospice volunteer visiting service made up of interested and sharing members of the community. To ensure that these humanizing measures continued, the hospice organizers educated the local community-at-large about the plight of the dying person.