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| Professor David Kissane |
School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS)
Department of Psychiatry Head Professor David Kissane has been invited as
Visiting Professor to the University of Hong Kong in September, and will also
deliver the Dame Cecily Saunders Annual Lecture at King's College in October.
Professor Kissane’s King's College lecture will focus on
integrating the existential and psychosocial into palliative medicine—and
demonstrate that hope, value and meaning counter demoralisation to sustain
patients, families and care teams.
“Existential challenges are a major source of suffering
towards the end of life,” Professor Kissane said.
“Demoralisation is one such mental state comprising low
morale and a sense of poor coping, in which pessimism, helplessness and
hopelessness can lead to loss of meaning and purpose in life.”
Professor Kissane said that empirical data have shown a
stronger relationship between demoralisation and suicidal thinking than
depression and wishing to die.
“Therapies that aim to restore meaning in life help to
ameliorate demoralisation,” he said.
“Demoralisation is a useful concept to deepen diagnostic
understanding, treatment choice and ability to communicate with clinicians and
patients.”
“It is a contagious state of mind, necessitating family and
multidisciplinary team work to prevent its inadvertent transmission among care
providers,” said Professor Kissane.
The King's College lecture will be broadcast live to ten
partner sites in Europe, Africa and the US on 4 October.
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