Researchers at Trinity's School of Medicine have investigated how patient and informal caregiver reciprocal support in specialist palliative care impacts on patient and caregiver decision making for care. Their findings indicate that both obligation to each other and feeling constrained by one another can limit patient and caregiver open disclosure in decision making.
Researchers now believe the impact of mutual obligation on patient and caregiver decision-making needs to be considered when designing interventions for patient care in palliative care settings. For patients, obligation to their caregiver centered on feeling obliged to accept assistance from their caregiver and feeling constrained in a care recipient role.
Where the caregiver did not feel forced into caregiving and the patient did not feel inhibited by their reliance on the caregiver, open communication about the needs and preferences for care were far more likely.at Trinity, primary investigator and corresponding author of the study, said,