A new form of psychotherapeutic intervention, Dignity Therapy is big news in Canada and the States for patients near the end of life. Patients are guided through a conversation with a trained interviewer about their life, feelings, memories and their hopes and dreams for their families. Recordings of the conversation are used to create an edited transcript that is given to patients to share with others. In one trial, 68% of patients reported an increased sense of purpose and 67% an increased sense of meaning after participating in the therapy. Is this too much intervention in what should be a normal, natural bedside conversations when someone is dying, or a valuable convept?
Commissioning a memorial to celebrate the life of a loved one can be the hardest task facing us,...
