Life review in end of life care:a practitioner’s perspective

This paper presents an exploratory study of life review as a therapeutic technique performed in the end of life care. We describe interviews with four therapists practicing life review and discuss initial findings showing the benefits of closure and empowerment for patients’ emotional wellbeing. Findings also highlight the importance of reflective remembering in life review, together with the challenge of recalling details of significant life events, and of their emotional processing. Another finding relates to the current limited use of technology for end of life review, with an emphasis of printed photos, music and significant objects for supporting recall of key events. Our findings led to design implications for supporting the construction of life review and the recording of life review process. We conclude with a discussion of the challenges of life review in end of life care and of the need to explore such digital tools to support it