Dealing with Unbearable Existential Suffering in Psychiatric Patients: A Palliative Care Model.

Unbearable existential suffering in psychiatric patients is a problem that deserves recognition in mental healthcare. The confrontation with existential suffering in psychiatric patients results in ethical questions concerning the meaning and the content of treatment and care for this patients group. It is not clear whether medical treatment should be withheld or withdrawn and whether euthanasia requests of psychiatric patients should be granted. In this research project, the role of psychiatric nurses in the care process for psychiatric patients confronted with existential suffering will be explored. Based on these research results, the meaning and content of 'palliation' in the care process for psychiatric patients confronted with existential suffering will be described.

Keywords:ethics, psychiatry, palliative care

Disciplines:Other philosophy, ethics and religious studies not elsewhere classified, Theory and methodology of philosophy, Philosophy, Ethics