B026870 - CRISIS AND EVOLUTIONARY TRANSITIONS IN TERMS OF DISEASE (for elective activities only)

Italian

Illness as biographical disruption in the life cycle (perinatal period, childhood, adolescence, adulthood); adjustment and emotional evaluation in illness condition; hospital services for children, adolescents and adults. Diagnosis’ communication, illness and disease’s comprehension in individual and familiar perspective; psychologist’s role during patients’ sickness. End of life condition and grief. Narrative Based Medicine.

•De Carlo, N. A., & Senatore Pilleri, R. (2012). Le malattie croniche nel ciclo di vita. Aspetti psicologici, comunicativi e di organizzazione sanitaria. Ed. Franco Angeli, Milano (NO chapters 11, 12, 13)
• Smorti, A., & Donzelli, G. P. (2015). La medicina narrativa in pediatria. Come le storie ci aiutano a capire la malattia. SEID, Firenze.
• Baile, W.F. Buckman, R., Lenzi,R., Glober, G., Beale, E., Kudelka, A. P. (2000). SPIKES—A Six-Step Protocol for Delivering Bad News. Application to the Patient with Cancer. The Oncologist, 5:302-311.  http://theoncologist.alphamedpress.org/content/5/4/302.full.pdf
• Engel, G.L. (1977). The need for a new medical model: a challenge for biomedicine. Science, 196:129-136 https://globalization.anthro-seminars.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Need-for-a-New-Medical-Model-A-Challenge-for-Biomedicine.pdf
• Slides and materials uploaded on moodle

Knowledge and understanding:
The course aims to promote knowledge and reflection on chronic illness during the cycle of life, using a systemic and multifactorial approach: cognitive, affective, and social aspects; main characteristics of the most disseminated chronic diseases; different psychological techniques to support the patient and his/her relatives during the different illness phases: from diagnosis to the end of life, and grief; major hospital services for the support and rehabilitation of the chronic patient (hospital school, clown therapy, pet therapy, art therapy, music therapy, book therapy, oncological aesthetic service, writing laboratory etc…); evaluation’s techniques to measure psychological suffering, psychological adjustment, strategies to cope with disease.
Moreover, the course aims to promote comprehension and acquire skills about Narrative Based Medicine, biographical narratives, psychological research methodologies in the hospital context.


Applying knowledge and understanding.
The course provides the fundamental skills to cope with case study of chronic illness condition, helping applying developmental transitions to disease conditions, detect the main risk and protection factors that can influence the quality of life, evaluate which techniques and methods adopt to in-depth understanding psychosocial processes, and define approaches and interventions in supporting families and individuals. The course helps to use narration to acquire, understand and integrate the different points of view of those involved in the disease and in the care processes.
Making judgements:
The course encourages an autonomous and critical reflection about transitions applied to disease conditions, also working in group.


Communication skills:
The course promotes the knowledge and the properly use of specialist vocabulary, and the expression and arguing personal point of view. Moreover, it promotes advanced knowledge of English by reading papers on some course’s topics.


Learning skills:
The course provides skills required for ongoing learning, helping in detecting and evaluating different and useful sources, experiences, and materials.

Knowledge of the main characteristics of psychological development during the cycle of life (childhood, adolescence, adulthood), matured on precedent courses in development psychology and/or clinical psychology.

Knowledge and understanding:
Lessons, seminars in collaboration with external experts.
Use of books, comic books, articles lectures, films, tv series about illness during the cycle of life.
Reflections and discussion in small and bigger group.

Applying knowledge and understanding.
3 exercises (6 hours) about illness narratives on which to apply the principal methodologies of narratives’ interpretations, with discussion.


Making judgements:
Group discussions on illness’ narratives. Interactive lessons.

Communication skills:
Exercises in small group and presenting reflections to class. Interactive lessons.

Learning skills:
Lessons, seminars, exercises.

Couse program, the time-table of course activities, suggested readings, learning objective, teaching methods, type of assessment will be presented at the beginning of the course. All students are invited to be present at the beginning of the course, even those who cannot attend the course or can do it but only rarely.
In addition to the slide presented during classes, the time-table of course activities, also Syllabus will be put online on the e-learning site.
All students (i.e., attending and non-attending) must study all materials uploaded on moodle.
All students (attending and non-attending) are strongly invited to attend final exercises (6 hours) on illness narratives.

knowledge and understanding:
Written and oral examination.
In the written examination, a case study narrative will be presented and the student will be asked to apply the principal methodologies of narratives’ interpretations, to consider the elements of knowledge and to motivate the choice of the elements to be in-depth investigated, by which methods to do it, and the way to approach.
Oral examination only for students who got a sufficient evaluation in the written exam; oral examination pertains both a reflection on the case study narrative addressed in written examination and all topics of the course.


Applying knowledge and understanding:
Study of a case study narrative.

Making judgements:
Study of a case study narrative.

Communication skills
Written and oral examinations. Interactive lessons.

Learning skills
Written and oral examinations. Ability to critically reflects on illness’ narratives. Ability to expose all the topics of the course.

Disease, Illness and sickness definition: illness as biographical disruption. Meaning about disease in cycle of life perspective; biopsychosocial model; illness during perinatal and pediatric periods; evaluation of chronic illness with particular focus on parents, brothers, pediatric patients. Disease during adolescence and its evaluation in terms of adjustment, coping, resilience, psychological sufferance and so on… hospital services offered to children and adolescents (pet therapy, music therapy, play therapy, clown therapy, specific services offered by Meyer’s Pediatric Hospital). Hospital school: how to promote normality and school continuity in children and families spending long periods in the hospital. Disease during adulthood and aging and its evaluation. Communication and comprehension of the diagnosis in the cycle of life: how to help the patient in different diseases’ phases to understand the diagnosis and how to foster diagnosis communication by sanitary staff. End of life conditions and death studies. Grief. Narrative based medicine and illness narratives.