[Home care nurses' support of the relative caregiver of the patient dying at home].

The purposes of this article is to describe the need for support of the family members as care givers and the support they have received from domiciliary care team when caring for a dying family member at home. The article is based on the study which is one part of the STAKES research project called "Death with dignity". The project takes place in ten Finnish municipalities. This study was carried out in Tornio in August 1993 where eight family care givers were interviewed. The results show that the family care givers needed and had received both instrumental help and psychosocial support. The most important instrumental help was accurate information and guidance in practical skills e.g. how to use different kinds of instruments. The family care givers needed psychosocial support to be able to support the dying person. The interviewees emphasized particularly the value of hope both to the ill person and to the other family members. Trying to maintain hope after a terminal diagnosis is a lonely process for the patient and for the family, because for them, the health-care system often offers only bad news. The interviewees also underlined the need of official financial support system of the society.