Family Caregivers’ Social Representations of Death in a Palliative Care Context

• Main Authors: Sabrina Lessard, Bernard-Simon Leclerc, Suzanne Mongeau
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2016-03-01
• Series: SAGE Open
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016637399

The objective of this study was to consider the social representations of death of family caregivers in a palliative care context. The authors focused on the analysis of 23 interviews with family caregivers who cared for a terminally ill person at home and/or in a specialized palliative care unit, in Québec, Canada. The finding showed that family caregivers had different images that specifically represented death: (a) losses as different kinds of “deaths,” (b) palliative care as a place to negotiate with death, and (c) last times as confirmation of the end. These images highlight the meaning attributed to the body and the position of the dying person in our Western society. Representations of palliative care reveal a kind of paradox, a place of respect and of “gentle death,” and a place where death is almost too omnipresent. They also show the strong beliefs surrounding the use of painkillers at the end of life. Finally, these images refer to end-of-life personal rituals viewed as support for the passage into a new state of being. This study provides a better understanding of the common sense of death for family caregivers in a palliative care context and of the meanings of this emotional subject.