Feasibility and acceptability of virtual dignity therapy for palliative care patients with advanced cancer

Outcomes 1. Understand the foundation of DT and the utilization of virtual platform to provide DT to patients with advanced cancer.2. Identify lessons learned, pros and cons of vDT and strategies to implement into clinical practice. Key Message Patients experiencing serious illness often have existential and psychosocial distress contributing to their pain and suffering. Addressing existential distress can be challenging and finding new approaches to make this available to patients is important. Dignity therapy (DT) has been shown to relieve existential distress. We will present results of our pilot study of feasibility and acceptability of virtual DT (vDT). Objective Patients with advanced cancer often experience distress related to their disease, treatment, and impending mortality. Dignity therapy (DT) an individualized psychotherapy that aims to relieve psycho emotional and existential distress and improve the experiences of patients whose lives are impacted by serious illness. DT involves the production of a generativity document (GD) for the patient and their loved ones. During the pandemic, utilization of virtual visits increased and became standard of practice, therefore it was important to determine the feasibility and acceptability of virtual DT (vDT) into to provide this intervention to seriously ill patients. Methods This pilot study at Mayo Clinic Rochester recruited adult patients with advanced cancer and expected prognosis >6 months. Prior to DT intervention, baseline measures were collected followed by DT interviews which consisted of a total of 2-3 sessions of interviews focused on life review, discussion and editing of the GD, and an exit interview focused on the acceptability and feasibility of virtual DT. Results Twenty-nine patients from the Mayo Clinic Palliative Care Clinic were referred to the study with twenty-four eligible patients. Fourteen patients consented. In completed program evaluation surveys, acceptability of the virtual component (4.6/5 rating) and satisfaction with the DT process (4.4/5 rating) were high (n=5). Post DT intervention interviews were also conducted. Conclusion(s) Results support to the feasibility and acceptability of vDT. For patients that are too sick DT can be high effort not allowing for completion of the GD. Transcribing and editing the document can be time intensive for the interviewer. Finding ways to move vDT into clinical practice is important. Keywords Existential / Humanities / Spirituality / ReligionInnovative Technologies