Psychology in end of life care

Babybass

Hi...I am interested in doing a psychology/counselling course but my main area of interest is in hospice/end of life care. I was wondering if this is an area that I can specialise in, if a psychology degree would be the best route or would a counselling qualification be the way to go.

A bit of background - I am 33 years old which may be old to start down this path but I feel it needs life experience. This area interests me so much probably because I have experienced a lot of death in my life but I think it is mainly that when my mother died she was sick for 4 years and spent most of that time in the hospital - despite being told that she was dying she would never accept it and this made her death far more difficult for her. I believe strongly that people who are dying need to face it and accept it - it doesn't mean they stop living the life they have left, just that they stop fearing what is to come. It is an incredibly difficult time for people - death is something we try to avoid thinking about - and a lot of times people are cared for physically but their mental health and peace of mind are neglected while we try to keep them comfortable.

Anyway - I just wanted to pose a few questions and maybe get peoples opinions and hopefully some helpful advice.

Thanks!

Odysseus

Babybass wrote: »

Hi...I am interested in doing a psychology/counselling course but my main area of interest is in hospice/end of life care. I was wondering if this is an area that I can specialise in, if a psychology degree would be the best route or would a counselling qualification be the way to go.

A bit of background - I am 33 years old which may be old to start down this path but I feel it needs life experience. This area interests me so much probably because I have experienced a lot of death in my life but I think it is mainly that when my mother died she was sick for 4 years and spent most of that time in the hospital - despite being told that she was dying she would never accept it and this made her death far more difficult for her. I believe strongly that people who are dying need to face it and accept it - it doesn't mean they stop living the life they have left, just that they stop fearing what is to come. It is an incredibly difficult time for people - death is something we try to avoid thinking about - and a lot of times people are cared for physically but their mental health and peace of mind are neglected while we try to keep them comfortable.

Anyway - I just wanted to pose a few questions and maybe get peoples opinions and hopefully some helpful advice.


Thanks!

No your not to old at 33, a psych degree would be the place to start. DCU I think do a Masters in psych-oncology but you need some experience as well AFAIK. I'm currently doing a MSc in Bereavement Studies with the Irish Hospice Foundation and the Royal College of Surgeons. However, this is not a clinical training, it's open to therapists, nurses, etc. However, anybody hoping to use it in a clinical manner would already be qualified.

As a tester you could try the Irish Hospice Foundations webstie, they run a lot of regular work shops. You would be talking about a long road to qualify and there are limited job opportunities in hospice care, but you start a journey and you will never know where you will end up.


Just to add as this has been coming up a lot here so it is not totally directed at yourself. However, saying I believe this or that is only your opinion, you study to learn various theories and different ways of working with people. Everybody has there own beliefs and theories, however, when you go to study an area, you learn about the accepted ways of working and theories, eventually, if you are one of the very luckly ones you may develop a theory or practice that others value. However, they are the luckly few, the rest of us follow their lead and hope that our practice reflects that. As I said it not just directed at yourself OP, but this is the reality of clinical practice.

Babybass

Thank you for your reply! I know that it is a long road - and along the way I may decide to follow a different route - but having an idea of where you want to go is always a good starting point!

I will definitely look up that course - and am also looking into an OU course as this would allow me to avoid relocating - but I am not ruling that out either!

My belief that people need to embrace death is more of a religous belief - I believe that regardless of age or health everyone should embrace death. As it is a personal belief I don't expect anyone else to agree with it. I would imagine though that as a psychologist faced with a terminally ill patient one of the courses of treatment would be to get them to accept the reality of their situation? Maybe I am wrong in that belief/assumption - I know that there is no one answer to suit all patients.

I did CBT with a psychiatrist for some time and found that fascinating - I found traditional talking therapy not very helpful at all. I am looking forward to exploring other aspects of psychology and who knows what might grab my attention in the next few years!

Odysseus

Babybass wrote: »

Thank you for your reply! I know that it is a long road - and along the way I may decide to follow a different route - but having an idea of where you want to go is always a good starting point!

I will definitely look up that course - and am also looking into an OU course as this would allow me to avoid relocating - but I am not ruling that out either!

My belief that people need to embrace death is more of a religous belief - I believe that regardless of age or health everyone should embrace death. As it is a personal belief I don't expect anyone else to agree with it. I would imagine though that as a psychologist faced with a terminally ill patient one of the courses of treatment would be to get them to accept the reality of their situation? Maybe I am wrong in that belief/assumption - I know that there is no one answer to suit all patients.

I did CBT with a psychiatrist for some time and found that fascinating - I found traditional talking therapy not very helpful at all. I am looking forward to exploring other aspects of psychology and who knows what might grab my attention in the next few years!

It is a long road, but just enjoy the journey you really never do know where you will end up. As for the accepting reality, sometimes it may be wrong to take a terminally ill patient down a road that is too difficult for them. Best of luck with it.