Abstract:
A patient suffering from a severe illness that is entering its terminal stage is
forced to develop a coping process. Of all the coping patterns, the religious one stands out
as being a psychological resource available to all patients regardless of culture, learning,
and any age. Religious coping interacts with other values or practices of society, for
example the model of a society that takes care of it’s elder members among family or in an
institutionalized environment or the way the health system offers or not psychological
support for a terminally ill patient. Health care providers should have at least some
psychological coping patterns training because not all patterns of religious coping are
equally effective, and some have been described as increasing the level of stress or
producing other negative psychological effects on the patient. This article aims to review
the complex models of religious coping that are unanimously accepted in psychooncology,
arguments in favor of religious coping, the types of patients that use this model, ethical
dilemmas that could be reinterpreted using religious arguments. Finally, we will also
discuss the need of Romanian patients to embrace a religious coping in case of an incurable
illness, and also the support that they can receive from both curative and palliative health
care providers.
