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How to Enable Participation until the End of Life? A Survey of German Occupational Therapists Working in Palliative Care

Background: In palliative care, the needs of people with life-limiting illnesses must be addressed with the support of a multidisciplinary team. Occupational therapy is a profession that focuses on activity and participation. In Germany, there are no surveys to date that demonstrate the work of occu...

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Autores principales: Volberg, Christian, Fleck, Pauline, Vradelis, Paula, Morin, Astrid, Gschnell, Martin, Pape, Anna Elisabeth
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10455849/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37629299
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12165257
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author Volberg, Christian
Fleck, Pauline
Vradelis, Paula
Morin, Astrid
Gschnell, Martin
Pape, Anna Elisabeth
author_facet Volberg, Christian
Fleck, Pauline
Vradelis, Paula
Morin, Astrid
Gschnell, Martin
Pape, Anna Elisabeth
author_sort Volberg, Christian
collection PubMed
description Background: In palliative care, the needs of people with life-limiting illnesses must be addressed with the support of a multidisciplinary team. Occupational therapy is a profession that focuses on activity and participation. In Germany, there are no surveys to date that demonstrate the work of occupational therapists in palliative care and which problems can occur in this field. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe the work and problems of occupational therapists in German palliative care. Design: The survey consists of 17 questions and could be conducted anonymously. Descriptive statistics and a thematic analysis of the free text responses were used to analyze data. Setting/participants: Respondents were German occupational therapists who are members of the “German Association of Occupational Therapy”. Results: A total of 281 valid responses were evaluated, of which 120 respondents work in the context of palliative care. Most of them provide needs-based therapies (74%), train relatives (69%), or help patients with positioning (69%) or relaxation therapy (66%). Four themes were developed in the free text responses that describe problems in the utilization of occupational therapy in palliative care. Conclusions: The evaluation shows that occupational therapy in palliative care offers a variety of possible applications and approaches. The findings urgently need to be implemented in daily practice to improve the status of occupational therapists. This requires appropriate billing modalities and clear guidelines. There is still a significant need for research and training in this area.
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spelling pubmed-104558492023-08-26 How to Enable Participation until the End of Life? A Survey of German Occupational Therapists Working in Palliative Care Volberg, Christian Fleck, Pauline Vradelis, Paula Morin, Astrid Gschnell, Martin Pape, Anna Elisabeth J Clin Med Article Background: In palliative care, the needs of people with life-limiting illnesses must be addressed with the support of a multidisciplinary team. Occupational therapy is a profession that focuses on activity and participation. In Germany, there are no surveys to date that demonstrate the work of occupational therapists in palliative care and which problems can occur in this field. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe the work and problems of occupational therapists in German palliative care. Design: The survey consists of 17 questions and could be conducted anonymously. Descriptive statistics and a thematic analysis of the free text responses were used to analyze data. Setting/participants: Respondents were German occupational therapists who are members of the “German Association of Occupational Therapy”. Results: A total of 281 valid responses were evaluated, of which 120 respondents work in the context of palliative care. Most of them provide needs-based therapies (74%), train relatives (69%), or help patients with positioning (69%) or relaxation therapy (66%). Four themes were developed in the free text responses that describe problems in the utilization of occupational therapy in palliative care. Conclusions: The evaluation shows that occupational therapy in palliative care offers a variety of possible applications and approaches. The findings urgently need to be implemented in daily practice to improve the status of occupational therapists. This requires appropriate billing modalities and clear guidelines. There is still a significant need for research and training in this area. MDPI 2023-08-12 /pmc/articles/PMC10455849/ /pubmed/37629299 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12165257 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Volberg, Christian
Fleck, Pauline
Vradelis, Paula
Morin, Astrid
Gschnell, Martin
Pape, Anna Elisabeth
How to Enable Participation until the End of Life? A Survey of German Occupational Therapists Working in Palliative Care
title How to Enable Participation until the End of Life? A Survey of German Occupational Therapists Working in Palliative Care
title_full How to Enable Participation until the End of Life? A Survey of German Occupational Therapists Working in Palliative Care
title_fullStr How to Enable Participation until the End of Life? A Survey of German Occupational Therapists Working in Palliative Care
title_full_unstemmed How to Enable Participation until the End of Life? A Survey of German Occupational Therapists Working in Palliative Care
title_short How to Enable Participation until the End of Life? A Survey of German Occupational Therapists Working in Palliative Care
title_sort how to enable participation until the end of life? a survey of german occupational therapists working in palliative care
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10455849/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37629299
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12165257
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