Dignity – conserving care as a response to the needs of people at the end of life

Abstract

People at the end of their lives struggle with such problems as depression, anxiety, hopelessness, loss of meaning and purpose or demoralization. Palliative care attempts to satisfy both the physical and mental needs of patients and the need to maintain dignity is one of the basic ones. The aim of the article is to show how people at the end of life understand the concept of dignity and present a new model: dignity –conserving care and a proposal of new psychotherapeutic intervention - Dignity Therapy, which is to improve the quality of life of terminally ill patients.