Some observations of a psychiatric consultant to a hospice

The experience of a psychiatric consultant to the inpatient and bereavement components of a hospice is reported. The bulk of the consultation is to the hospice staff. Activities of the consultant include attendance at a weekly patient care meeting and patient and staff groups, consultation with the bereavement team and the administrative leadership, and the evaluation of patients. Clarification of the inevitable psychologic problems that arise in dealing with the mostly elderly very ill patients with end-stage cancer as well as with their families is a major function. Many of the problems special to the hospice relate to loss, mourning, and death. Psychiatric diagnostic input has been helpful in the treatment of organic and functional psychiatric disorders including the treatment of the emotional components of pain and disordered grief which is manifest as depression. Consultation is provided to individuals at risk of problems in the bereavement period. The psychiatric consultant to a hospice is helpful in establishing and maintaining a sensitive therapeutic system of care for the patient and family. He provides an important presence and a forum for the discussion of psychologic issues for the staff. In addition, he has an important role in clarifying the psychodynamic issues involved with death, loss, and mourning for the patient, family, and staff. He provides input around the treatment of functional and organic psychiatric problems seen in the patient and family. Such activities require the continuing membership and leadership of a psychiatrist on the hospice team. The hospice is a laboratory for the understanding of death, loss, and mourning. Although they have been the subject of much inquiry, these issues can be studied fruitfully at the hospice because of the accessibility to dying patients and the bereaved, both before and after the death of their loved one (Kubler-Ross, 1970; Parkes, 1972; Schoenberg, Carr, Kutscher, Peretz, and Goldberg, 1974; Jacobs and Ostfeld, 1977; Kastenbaum and Costa, 1977; Greenblatt, 1978). Much remains to be learned about the processes and outcomes of mourning, as well as dying styles and character styles and family variables as they relate to death. Psychologic principles around the care of the dying and their families that have application to other settings (Shanfield, 1978; Shanfield, 1982) need to be clarified in the hospice setting.