Publications by authors named "Rinat Nissim"

Background: Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is common, persistent, and is associated with lower quality of life, impaired functioning, and psychological distress in cancer patients. Studies suggest that family caregivers of cancer patients experience equal or greater levels of FCR than patients themselves. In the past 5 years, several interventions have demonstrated their ability to reduce FCR among cancer patients and in patient-caregiver dyads.

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Objective: Lung cancer is associated with the highest incidence and mortality of all cancers. New treatments, called targeted therapies (TT) and immunotherapies (IO), offer higher treatment efficacy and fewer side effects compared to traditional treatments but are accompanied by uncertainty and an unpredictable treatment course. There is a paucity of research on the experiences of individuals living with advanced or metastatic lung cancer receiving TT/IO, and even less is known about the supportive care needs of this population.

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Background: Legalization of assisted dying is progressively expanding worldwide. In Canada, the Medical Assistance in Dying Act became law in 2016. As assisted dying regulations evolve worldwide, comprehending its subjective impact and broader consequences, especially on family members, becomes pivotal for shaping practice, policy, and training.

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Background: Participants considering early-phase cancer clinical trials (CTs) need to understand the unique risks and benefits prior to providing informed consent. This qualitative study explored the factors that influence patients' decisions about participating in early-phase cancer immunotherapy CTs through the ethical lens of relational autonomy.

Methods: Using an interpretive descriptive design, interviews were conducted with 21 adult patients with advanced cancer who had enrolled in an early-phase CT.

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Background: Medical assistance in dying (MAiD) was legalized in Canada in 2016, but coordination of MAiD and palliative and end-of-life care (PEOLC) services remains underdeveloped. We sought to understand the perspectives of health leaders across Canada on the relationship between MAiD and PEOLC services and to identify opportunities for improved coordination.

Methods: In this quantitative study, we purposively sampled health leaders across Canada with expertise in MAiD, PEOLC, or both.

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Background: Family caregivers of cancer survivors experience equal or greater levels of fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) than survivors themselves. Some interventions have demonstrated their ability to reduce FCR among cancer survivors and dyads (patient and caregivers). However, to date, no validated intervention exists to focus solely on family caregiver's FCR.

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and its containment measures have drastically impacted end-of-life and grief experiences globally, including those related to medical assistance in dying (MAiD). No known qualitative studies to date have examined the MAiD experience during the pandemic. This qualitative study aimed to understand how the pandemic impacted the MAiD experience in hospital of persons requesting MAiD (patients) and their loved ones (caregivers) in Canada.

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Background: Family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer often have poor quality of life (QOL) and mental health. We examined the effectiveness of interventions offering support for caregivers of patients with advanced cancer on caregiver QOL and mental health outcomes.

Methods: We searched Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane CENTRAL, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature databases from inception through June 2021.

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Objectives: Outpatient in-person early palliative care improves quality of life for patients with advanced cancer. The COVID-19 pandemic forced a rapid shift to telehealth visits; however, little is known about how telehealth in outpatient palliative care settings should be optimised beyond the pandemic. We aimed to explore, from the perspective of patients attending an outpatient palliative care clinic, the most appropriate model of care for in-person versus telehealth visits.

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Introduction: Unpaid caregiving, care provided by family/friends, is a public health issue of increasing importance. COVID-19 worsened the mental health conditions of unpaid caregivers, increasing substance/drug use and early development of chronic disease. The impact of the intersections of race and ethnicity, sex, age and gender along with unpaid care work and caregivers' health and well-being is unknown.

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Introduction: The diagnosis, progression or recurrence of cancer is often highly traumatic for family caregivers (FCs), but systematic assessments of distress and approaches for its prevention and treatment are lacking. Acute leukaemia (AL) is a life-threatening cancer of the blood, which most often presents acutely, requires intensive treatment and is associated with severe physical symptoms. Consequently, traumatic stress may be common in the FCs of patients with AL.

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Purpose Of Review: The COVID-19 pandemic and measures to contain its impact are drastically altering end-of-life and grief experiences around the world, including the practice and experience of medical assistance in dying (MAiD).

Recent Findings: Recent published literature on the impact of COVID-19 on MAiD can be described under the following categories: studies investigating the impact of COVID-19 on MAiD from the healthcare providers' perspective; studies investigating the impact of COVID-19 on MAiD from the patient/family perspective; and opinion papers that review the impact of COVID-19 on MAiD from a legal-ethical perspective. Most of these studies were either conducted in Canada or included mostly Canadian participants.

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Family caregivers make significant contributions to the overall care of cancer patients and are the "invisible backbone" of the health care system. Family caregivers experience a wide range of challenges and can be considered patients in their own right, requiring support and dedicated attention, which may benefit them, the patients they are caring for, and the health care system. Despite consistent evidence on caregiver distress and unmet needs, most cancer care is organized around the patient as the target of care and caregiver distress is not screened for or addressed systematically.

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Introduction: Canadians have had legal access to medical assistance in dying (MAiD) since 2016. However, despite substantial overlap in populations who request MAiD and who require palliative care (PC) services, policies and recommended practices regarding the optimal relationship between MAiD and PC services are not well developed. Multiple models are possible, including autonomous delivery of these services and formal or informal coordination, collaboration or integration.

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Article Synopsis
  • The rise in cancer cases is putting a lot of pressure on healthcare systems, and caregivers (usually family members) are taking on more responsibilities, which can be really tough on them.
  • A study looked at education programs for these caregivers and found that many focus mainly on providing emotional support and information.
  • There’s a need for better programs that meet all kinds of caregiver needs, not just the emotional ones, so they can better help their loved ones with cancer and take care of themselves too.
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Purpose: We investigated relationships between domains of quality of dying and death in patients with advanced cancer and their caregivers' bereavement outcomes and the moderating effect of patient age at death.

Methods: Bereaved caregivers of deceased patients with advanced cancer who had participated in an early palliative care trial completed measures of grief (Texas Revised Inventory of Grief [TRIG]), complicated grief (Prolonged Grief Inventory [PG-13]), and depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression [CESD-10]). They also completed the Quality of Dying and Death measure (QODD), which assesses patients' symptom control, preparation for death, connectedness with loved ones, and sense of peace with death.

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Background: The legal criteria for medical assistance in dying (MAiD) for adults with a grievous and irremediable medical condition were established in Canada in 2016. There has been concern that potentially reversible states of depression or demoralization may contribute to the desire for death (DD) and requests for MAiD. However, little is known about the emergence of the DD in patients, its impact on caregivers, and to what extent supportive care interventions affect the DD and requests for MAiD.

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Background: The June 2016 legalization of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) provided an added layer of choice to end-of-life care in Canada. Family caregivers play an important role in patient end-of-life decision-making. They may experience unique psychological burden or distress associated with their role.

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Context: Health care professionals (HCPs) currently judge pain presence and intensity in patients with delirium despite the lack of a valid, standardized assessment protocol. However, little is known about how they make these judgments. This information is essential to develop a valid and reliable assessment tool.

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Objective: Attachment security protects psychological well-being in patients with advanced cancer, but its effect on death preparation in this population has not been demonstrated. We examined the relationship of attachment security to death preparation in advanced cancer and tested whether couple communication mediates this relationship and whether gender and age moderate this mediating effect, using longitudinal data from a psychotherapy trial.

Methods: Patients with advanced cancer who lived with a partner (N = 289) completed measures of attachment security (attachment avoidance, attachment anxiety), couple communication, and death preparation (preparation for end of life, life completion) and attendant health involvement (relationship with healthcare provider).

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Group mindfulness-based interventions are emerging as a promising, nonstigmatizing, and cost-effective strategy that may improve the well-being of individuals living with cancer. This study is a pilot pre-post mixed-method study to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and effects of an 8-week Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy group for Young Adults with Cancer (YA-MBCT). We approached young adults with cancer, who enrolled in YA-MBCT groups, offered at a large cancer hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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Purpose: We designed a novel, manualized intervention called Emotion And Symptom-focused Engagement (EASE) for acute leukemia (AL) and report here on a phase II randomized controlled trial (RCT) to assess its feasibility and preliminary efficacy.

Methods: Patients were recruited within 1 month of hospital admission and randomized to EASE plus usual care (UC) or UC alone. EASE includes (1) EASE-psy, a tailored psychotherapy delivered over 8 weeks, and (2) EASE-phys, weekly physical symptom screening over 8 weeks to trigger early palliative care.

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Medical assistance in dying (MAiD) is a globally polarising topic which often sparks debate surrounding the ethical and moral dilemmas that arise with a life-ending intervention. To gain a better understanding of this intervention, it is important to explore the experience of those most intimately affected by MAiD. Family caregivers of those with a terminal illness are the backbone of the healthcare and support team, often providing a substantial amount of informal care while at the same time coping with their own distress and anticipatory grief.

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