Psychological support for families of ICU patients: longitudinal documentation of the service

Abstract

This study is the first systematic effort to investigate psychological services provided to relatives of ICU patients at Nicosia General Hospital. Documentation of psychological sessions provided to relatives of ICU patients for the years 2011-2014 was analyzed. To investigate possible differences in the total number of sessions for the referenced years, the records were analyzed using patients' demographics, the outcome of hospitalization and the total number of sessions with relatives. A questionnaire was sent to the ICU staff aiming to identify their perception towards the need for psychological support. A total number of 863 psychological sessions were conducted with 640 relatives of 345 patients hospitalized in the ICU. Results indicate that more sessions are recorded when the outcome of younger patients' condition worsens, whereas the number of sessions decreases for older patients' families. When comparing the personnel's beliefs, regarding the importance of providing psychological services to different age groups, significant difference was found suggesting that the older the patient the less sessions they believe are required indicating a possible ageism bias.

Keywords: ICU staff; Psychological support; intensive care unit; relatives.