EFFECTIVENESS OF FAMILY INTEGRATION ON TERMINALLY ILL PATIENTS AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL, IBADAN.

Abstract

The place of family among the terminally ill cannot be overemphasised. A state of terminal illness calls for collaborative care in ensuring effective management of the terminally ill. He/She is cared for not only as an individual, but also as a family member whose reaction interlocks within the support system. This study adopted the survey research design. Random sampling technique was used to select 107 respondents namely 51 terminally ill patients and 51 family care givers. The instrument used was family integration scale (r=0.65). Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression. Two in-depth interviews were conducted with one terminally ill and one family caregiver. The result shows that family integration correlated significantly with effective care of the terminally ill and jointly accounted for 62.0% of the effective care of these. Observed relationship among family integration factors were financial assistance (r=65), life style modification (r=32,) and reallocation of roles (r=32). Patients expressed anxiety over the outcome of illness, difficulty in adaptation to lifestyle modification while the family care givers expressed satisfaction in involvement of care and financial constraint in some aspects of management of their terminally ill relatives. Therefore there is need for adequate provision of funds and that cost of treatment must be subsidised by the care givers.