Training for carers to ease agony at the end of life

A training program to help carers ease the agony of patients at the end of their lives was launched in Shanghai on Wednesday.

"Patients in the final chapter of their life not only suffer from pain resulting from disease and relationship with their families, but also spiritual agony," said Kong Zeshi, a tumor psychological counselor and a social worker who will participate in the program. "The mental care of these patients requires multidisciplinary and cross-field collaboration."

The program will mainly target staff in health care and nursing, psychosocial support, hospice care and funeral and interment service industries as well as family caregivers.

The program will comprise both classes and on-the-spot clinical practices and will be conducted by various bodies, such as the youth and social work committee of China Funeral Association, Life Care Community of Fu Shou Yuan International Group, China's largest cemetery and funeral service provider, Shanghai Hospice Care Health Service Center, and Shanghai Qingpu Li Ji Academy, a new funeral and interment vocational education academy approved last year to address the acute shortage of professionals in the field.

The first class will begin in late July in Yangpu District with 60 students in total.

Hospice care, which began in the 1960s in the United States and Europe, is still a new concept in China. It highlights the comfort and dignity of patients in the later stage of their lives.