Glossary: Integrative End-of-Life Care
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is a therapeutic technique of guided hypnosis that induces a state of deep relaxation and heightened focus to access the subconscious mind. Hypnosis may be used for anxiety, pain management, and behavioral and emotional changes.
Integrative Health
Integrative health is a holistic healthcare approach combining conventional medical practices with complementary therapies, involving well-coordinated care between various providers. It focuses on the whole person, addressing physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. This approach is patient-centered, promoting wellness and prevention alongside treatment by incorporating nutrition, exercise, and stress management.
Living Will
A “living will” is a type of advance directive containing instructions about future medical treatment in the event the individual is unable to communicate specific wishes due to illness or injury. Each state has its own regulations concerning the use of living wills.
Moral Injury
Moral injury is the psychological suffering arising when one violates their own ethical beliefs or values, for example in military combat. It may involve feelings of guilt, shame, and betrayal, negatively impacting mental health and well-being.
Non-voluntary euthanasia:
This refers to when a patient is unconscious or otherwise mentally unable to make a meaningful choice between living and dying, and a legal surrogate makes the decision on the patient’s behalf (Deathwithdignity, 2024).
Oncology
Oncology is the branch of medicine focusing on the diagnosis, treatment, and management of cancer and its related conditions. It may include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgeries, as well as support for patients and their families throughout the treatment process.
Palliative Care
This medical specialty is often associated with hospice; however, it can also be used independently and alongside curative treatments. Palliative care is available in every state, appropriate for anyone at any stage of life suffering with a debilitating illness–terminal or not–and focuses on pain management and providing comfort (Deathwithdignity, 2024).
Palliative Care
Palliative care focuses on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of serious illness. Through addressing physical, emotional, and spiritual concerns palliative are aims to improve the quality of life for both patients and their families and may be integrated with curative treatments.
Passive euthanasia
Hastening death by withholding or withdrawing life-prolonging or sustaining medical treatments, such as feeding tubes, ventilators, or drugs, with the expectation that death will occur sooner rather than later (The Hastings Center et al., 2023).
Peristalsis
Peristalsis is the involuntary circular and longitudinal muscles movement that moves food through your gastrointestinal tract.
Photobiomodulation
Photobiomodulation is a non-invasive therapeutic technique using specific wavelengths of light, usually in the red or near-infrared spectrum, to stimulate cellular processes and enhance tissue regeneration, promote healing, reduce inflammation, and provide pain relief.
Physician-assisted Dying
The practice of a physician providing the means for mentally competent, adult patients with terminal illness and decision-making capacity, to take his or own life. It permits dying patients to request a prescription for life-ending medications from their physician, usually with a prescription for barbiturates that patient must self-administer and ingest the medication without assistance. This practice is also sometimes also called physician-assisted suicide, Medical Aid-in-Dying (MAiD), physician aid-in-dying, and patient administered hastened death) (The Hastings Center et al., 2023).
Soul Wound/ Soul Injury
A soul wound, or soul injury, is a deep emotional or spiritual trauma, such as loss, major life changes, and abuse, that impacts a person's sense of self and well-being.
Studied Neutrality
This refers to various medical organizations’ recognition of and respect for the diversity of members’ personal and religious views and choices — as well as those of their patients — in order to encourage open discussion about all end-of-life options (Deathwithdignity, 2024).
Terminal (or Palliative) Sedation
Generally practiced during the final days or hours of a dying patient’s life, this coma-like state is medically induced through medication when symptoms such as pain, nausea, breathlessness, or delirium cannot be controlled while the patient is conscious. Patients generally die from the sedation’s secondary effects of dehydration or other intervening complications (Deathwithdignity, 2024).
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