Psychotherapy in palliative care units. Empirical stocktaking

Exemplary for psychotherapeutic activity in the "sphere of death" the article focuses on the present situation of psychotherapists working on palliative care units in Germany. For that a questionnaire has been developed which includes 17 items dealing with fields of concrete psychotherapeutic work, psychotherapy training, relations with teams and institutions, subjectively felt burden and contentment etc. The questionnaire was sent to most of the German palliative care infirmaries. There is a high presence of psychotherapists in these units who are well trained in different therapeutic methods, numerically led by behavior therapy and non-directive therapy. In addition most colleagues are qualified in psychooncology and specialized pain management. Surprisingly topics, such as death or spirituality are not so often found in therapeutic contacts as would be expected. Furthermore there is a rather negative outlook on the preparation for the palliative working field during psychotherapy training. This requires extensions and supplementary curricula concerning existential themes in psychotherapy. The psychotherapists feel well integrated in their therapeutic teams but many of them have a feeling of at best a mediocre appreciation in their institutions. In spite of the difficult and stressful work the general job satisfaction is stated as high to very high.