What Patients and Caregivers Experience When They Receive Palliative Care: A Study Eliciting Metaphors That Could Shape Public Messaging

Many patients who could benefit from Palliative Care do not receive services because of lack of awareness or misconceptions. This high level of public unfamiliarity combined with inaccurate beliefs equating Palliative Care with dying calls for public messaging designed to increase public familiarity and correct misconceptions. A barrier to widespread public messaging, however, is the scarcity of messages developed with empirical research in public perceptions of the lived experience of receiving palliative care. In this report, we describe qualitative research aimed at identifying the "deep metaphors" associated with palliative care, to provide an empirical foundation for further creative work. We interviewed 8 patients receiving palliative care and 8 caregivers using a qualitative method, Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique, that is specially designed to reveal unconscious metaphors and socially shared associations that participants held about experiencing palliative care. Study participants likened the onset of serious illness as a massive disruption resulting in stunning losses with far-reaching consequences. What serious illness "took away" from them was a sense of certainty about where their lives were going, and these participants described experiencing (1) shame and embarrassment about what was happening to them; (2) a sense that no one was listening to them; (3) feeling lost and uncertain about what to do, feeling stuck; and (4) losing parts of their identity to illness. What they felt in need of, to counter what had been taken away, was (1) validation for what they were going through; (2) agency to determine their own quality of life and have input into their care; (3) guidance to access a network of resources; and (4) regeneration of their self-worth, resulting in a new version of their identity. This research provides guidance for message developers on frames, language, and visuals for future campaigns designed to create public interest in palliative care.