The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the general population is roughly 7-8%. Historically, the focus has been in populations such as military personnel, and on traumatic events like violence and sexual assault, however the criteria has expanded to include serious injury and life-threatening events. All hospice patients are facing life-threatening situations and have usually undergone a number of potentially distressing experiences throughout their illness journey, from diagnosis, to invasive investigations, and aggressive treatment. Furthermore, due to pandemic restrictions, supports for seriously ill patients have been limited, often necessitating patients undergo treatments, investigations, and hospitalization alone, which likely contributes further to the traumatic experience of being ill. To our knowledge, the prevalence of PTSD as a result of illness related traumas in patents with terminal diagnoses is unknown. Furthermore, the nature of these experiences has not been well-explored. A better understanding of the prevalence PTSD and the nature of the associated traumatic events and triggers can guide the integration trauma-informed care into the palliative care setting to improve support for patients and their caregivers

The primary objectives of this project are to determine the prevalence of PTSD among patients with life-limiting illnesses nearing the end of their life, and exploring the nature of traumatic events and experiences through patient narratives. Our secondary objective is to determine the prevalence of PTSD among caregivers of patients nearing end of life, and exploring the nature of traumatic events and experiences through caregiver narratives