Existential distress is notable in palliative care patients, particularly those with disfiguring life-limiting illnesses. This results in palliative care workers experiencing helplessness while witnessing patient’s suffering.
Our speaker, Dover Park Hospice senior medical social worker Koh Tang En, shared more about her journey with a cancer patient experiencing disfigurement. A palliative care worker’s experience of helplessness encompasses the cause (witnessing suffering), compounding factor (non-recognition of helplessness), and alleviating factors (life affirmation, mutual recognition, and gratitude). Interwoven recognition between patients, families, workers, and organisations could strengthen each other as a form of healing.