Desire to Die – Digital Trainings and Literacy (DeDigiTaL)

German Version

Project management: Dr. Kerstin Kremeike, Prof. Dr. Raymond Voltz
Contact: Dr. Kerstin Kremeike, Kathleen Boström M. Sc., Thomas Dojan M. Sc. / B. A.
Duration: 06/2021 - 07/2023
Funding institution: Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ)

Project Description

People with advanced life-limiting illness or in old age, may develop the wish that death should come sooner or that their life should end earlier. At the Center for Palliative Medicine at the University Hospital of Cologne, desires to die and how to deal with them in palliative care have been researched for more than a decade. Among other things, the need for trainings for professionals in palliative care was identified, a semi-structured interview schedule and a training curriculum were developed and evaluated.

The high demand for training confirms the need for support in dealing professionally with desires to die. Staff shortages, lack of time, and/or lack of funding do not allow many staff to attend multi-day classroom training. This is where low-threshold, low-cost, time-flexible offerings can help. These should include easy access to the most important information and the option of modular training courses. Digital offerings are particularly suitable for this purpose. To this end, the training content should be expanded in modules to include the topics that are most frequently requested: these include volunteering in hospice care, legal issues, and the perspective of relatives. Consequently, the two goals of the project are:

1. To digitize the existing two-day training curriculum for dealing with desire to die and to translate the training content into digitally retrievable information materials to ensure low-threshold access.
2. The development of additional training modules (online and in presence) and information materials to supplement the content and target groups.

The project is to be implemented in four successive phases: Development of the concept (phase 1), creation of the material (phase 2), implementation / application (phase 3), revision and dissemination (phase 4).