Sarah Hales

Research Synopsis

The overarching goal of my academic work is to expand the boundaries of health care beyond the focus on physical symptoms and disease to include subjective experience, psychological distress, and the family system; beyond the focus on present illness to consider preparation for end of life, the dying phase, and bereavement; and beyond the acute medical setting of the comprehensive cancer care centre to increase access to specialized psychosocial oncology care across Canada and around the globe. All of my research focuses on the psychosocial challenges facing patients with advanced disease and their families and the development and testing of interventions aimed at relieving their distress and improving their quality of life and death. All projects fall under one of the following three categories: 1) quality of the end-of-life experience and dying and death in advanced disease; 2) the experience of caregivers supporting patients with advanced disease; 3) psychotherapeutic care and interventions to support for patients and families facing advanced disease.