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 Printable version |
Oncogeriatry and psychology: an other glance at the elderly |
Bulletin du Cancer. Volume 95, Number 8, 121-7, FMC Oncogériatrie, Formation SFC
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 Résumé
Article gratuit
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Author(s) : Florence Barruel, Pascale Brunel, Karen Kraeuter, Didier Maillet |
Summary : Medecine, as well as the whole society, should cope with asociety getting older and older. Yet, to what extend are the peculiarities ofelderly assessed and taken into account ? And what about relationship and communication ? Are elderlyoffered similar therapeutic projects and are they equally informed about them ? Do they have, them selves, the same needs ? Oncologists and the nursing staff encounter severalpeculiar difficulties while coping with elderly. These difficulties are notonly due to a complicated medical situation of a multi-treated patient with along history of many other diseases, but also to strongly anchored receivedideas that « it’s easier to die when one is old » and that « it’s better topreserve the patient by hiding his disease to him, and by lying to him aboutit, because it is worthless to tell him the truth ». Yet, these ideas are not ofany help. Wrong ideas, lack of information, means and trained manpower andsometimes of interest affect often negatively the patient’s treatment outcome, and highlight, more than in any other patients, psychological, relational butalso ethical thorny stakes. By focusing on the elderly peculiarities, whileconsidering them as patients on their own, it would be possible to highlightthese stakes and to better assess these touchy situations. This would helpenhancing a better use of neuropsychology and psychooncology and by that bettertailor the therapeutic and nursing decisions as well as communication fashionsin onco-geriatry. |
Keywords : oncogeriatry, psychooncology, information, representation, assessment, communication |
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