I am so tired of existing: Clarifying the complex and multilayered Experience of ToL by a multi-informant interdisciplinary approach [ClarEToL]

A phenomenon that receives increasing interest in society is that of older adults who experience their life as completed and of no value anymore. This phenomenon is labeled ‘tiredness of life’ (ToL) but very little empirical knowledge of what ToL is, seems currently available and no insight is present for nursing home residents (NHRs), a growing population in western societies. Therefore, ClarEToL aims to provide a full understanding of ToL as it is experienced by critical actors involved, by incorporating different ‘views’ (i.c., historical, care ethical, psychiatric, existential, and pharmacotherapeutic perspective). ClarEToL has a four-fold focus: 1) providing in-depth first-person knowledge on ToL both in the past and in our current society, 2) determining the uniqueness of ToL and delineating its potential overlap with phenomena, 3) developing a scale to assess ToL in NHRs, 4) clarifying whether and how medication use plays a role in ToL.

Keywords:Tiredness of Life, Completed Life, Health care professionals, Informal carers, Nursing home residents

Disciplines:Cultural history, Developmental psychology and aging not elsewhere classified, Clinical pharmacy, Nursing ethics, Biological psychiatry