Avec « la mort pour diagnostic »

Mobile palliative care teams share much of their knowledge with other healthcare teams. Often called in to palliate difficulties encountered by the primary care team, mobile palliative care teams are asked to provide assistance in particularly demanding situations despite the fact that the primary care team actually has the competency required. When overcome by an accompanying situation which becomes more difficult than expected, the primary team asks for emergency assistance, creating a situation where the palliative care team has to function in very less than optimal conditions. We propose an exploration of this type of situation, focusing on the need for more awareness of the importance of the psychological environment. Better awareness should be helpful in opening up the palliative care enclave, which has functioned independently in the past, feeding the myth that skills needed for psychological support of terminally ill patients is an exclusive competence of specific caregivers.