Lisa Sand is a social worker who has worked as a counsellor with terminally ill and dying patients since the 1980s. She completed her PhD and defended her thesis in which patients were interviewed about the existential crisis that arises when death becomes a reality.
Told to: Annika Lund, first published in Medicinsk Vetenskap nr 1 2025
How would you summarise your research?
- 'When death is a reality, you sometimes need to find strategies to rest from death sometimes. You can draw strength from existential matters related to life, such as relationships, everyday life and things that give you hope. We call them connections, connections to life. They become very important in the presence of death.
How is this knowledge used in healthcare?
- My impression is that those who work in palliative home care or palliative inpatient care are amazingly good at and reflect a lot on these issues. But as soon as you leave specialised palliative care, for example to emergency or primary care, this knowledge is often lacking.
What knowledge do you most want to convey?
- Palliative care does not necessarily mean end-of-life care. It is important to convey this. Palliative care is alleviating care, and it is possible to provide relief to someone who is ill long before it is time to die. This can include pain relief, nausea relief, support in everyday life, or getting help to let life continue its normal course, for as long as possible. But support measures alone is not enough; a palliative approach is also needed. Support measures can be as simple as handing over a list of phone numbers and call times to someone who needs to contact a dietician or assistive devise centre, for example. A palliative approach is to provide a single telephone number where the person who answers has a holistic approach. Palliative care works to create a sense of safety. It requires mental presence, calm, knowledge, and eye contact. The goal is always to create the most safe and secure environment as possible for the patient.'
Told to: Annika Lund
Name: Lisa Sand
Age: 73 years
Occupation: Retired counsellor who still works as a supervisor and lecturer for palliative care staff. Her area of expertise is how to address existential crisis in patients who are terminally ill and their relatives.
