Hope in the Midst of Terminal Illness

Abstract

Although palliative and hospice care services are increasingly available, many adults and children still die without this kind of support or receive it only in the last few days of life, as many patients, family members, and clinicians equate the initiation of these services with loss of hope. This chapter presents a model of how hopeful patterns of thinking and a balance of positive and negative affect may facilitate a regoaling process in which individuals transition from cure-seeking goals to other personally meaningful goals that are attainable at the end of life or while living with a serious chronic illness. Understanding different forms of hopeful thinking, goals, and self-concepts among dying patients and their families can help clinicians provide support through this difficult experience and achieve better quality of life and symptom management for patients and better quality of life and long-term adjustment for family members.