Demographics, participant 1:

Name: A.S
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Socio economic status: Middle class
Occupation: student
Education: Post graduation

Q - Can you describe your understanding and beliefs about life and death before participating in
the palliative psychology course?
A – “At first, I did not know what palliative was about. However, I knew it was related to care
but when I chose palliative psychology as my elective course subject, I got the understanding of
what palliative is about. But then again before having knowledge of palliative psychology, my
perspective of death was it was ok right as at the end it was all about death, and I actually never
thought that we can provide them a care in that remaining time of an individual.”

Q - What motivated you to choose palliative as your subject?

A – “It was interesting as it was something new and the word gave me a fascination to know
more about the subject moreover, I did not have proper understanding of other electives either,
but Palliative Psychology looked interesting, that is why I chose palliative Psychology as an
elective.”

Q - How has the palliative psychology course influenced or changed your understanding of life
and death? In what ways has it challenged or expanded your previous beliefs or perspectives?
A – “As I said I did not have an idea about what palliative psychology was but somewhere I
knew it was related to death and care. But after taking Palliative psychology as an elective
subject, I understood that in palliative psychology it teaches how can one live their remaining
time happily and nicely, umm… and cannot just sit there in anxiety thinking about the death.
Instead, we can work on how one can live their remaining life happily and die peacefully and
that’s what I understood in palliative.”
Q - Do you believe that conventional methods, such as formal education or religious teachings,
are sufficient for understanding life and death? Or do you think alternative or unconventional
approaches are also important? Why?
A – “I think that, according to what I know, there is not much awareness about palliative care. So
even if now we ask someone "what is palliative care?" They usually don't know what it is, and
then we have to explain it to them. So, for example, even me, even though I’m a psychology
student I still don’t know what palliative care is. When I took up the course and chose the
elective that’s when I knew that yeah palliative care is this and this. Many people know it too but
don’t know the actual meaning of it, they don't know how to use it, or if it has a center to it or
not; they just think that it’s a work same as a nurse, but it's not like that. A proper care is given
where for example there are cancer patients so they’re usually in a lot of problem like they're
depressed. So, they (people who work in palliative care) try to bring them out of it and in
whatever time they have left, they help how to live and how not to live a lifestyle, all this
is involved in it.”

Q - Have you encountered any unconventional methods or practices during the course that have
influenced your understanding of life and death? If so, can you provide examples and explain
their impact?
A – “Well I can't remember much but yes it has happened obviously it has because as I said, I
understood the meaning after choosing the course, as in what is palliative care actually and why
it’s important and also the uses of it. And for me it’s like it’s really important to have palliative
care because what happens is at last, even the family of the people suffering and under palliative
care are facing a lot of problems and are always stressed. And it’s not like only the person who
has the disease has problems, even the family has problems. As we say like they (caregivers)
have economic problems, Mental problems even physical problems like for example the parents
of a patient will have a lot of stress as mental problem, and physical problem like giving time to
the person who is diseased and doing everything for them. Even in that they're investing right?
Even that problems they have and in financial it’s like they're getting the patient cared for and
getting medications and treatments which will cause financial issue. There is also a model that
was taught to us, but I don’t remember the name, but in that we were taught that how the
management is done and how it’s started and how our problems begin and everything else has
been explained in it.”

Q - In your opinion, what are the benefits and limitations of conventional and unconventional
methods in acquiring knowledge about life and death?
A – “Benefit is this only that how much ever time is left, in that the person gets to enjoy their
life. Limitations, I think that when we get to know that palliative care is all this but due to lack of
awareness, more than half of the people don’t even know anything. Management is the most
important, because it covers everything.”
Q - How do you think the knowledge and insights gained from the course will impact your future
interactions with individuals who are facing death or experiencing grief?
A – “For example about me, that in case something happens to me so the things that we feel on
the inside that after I die this and this will happen but whatever financial savings and all I have,
I’ll tell that to my family. Now that I have limited time, I can tell my family the things that were
only supposed to be kept to myself. Like it was before that I'm going to die and repetitively
stressing about that, it's not going to be like that anymore. That's because I've learned and known
how to make the limited time valuable and memorable and interesting. I’ll spend my time with
my family no matter what kind of terminal illness I have. For example, if I have someone with
whom I haven't talked in a long time, I’ll go myself to talk to them because there's no long way
future, I just have small amount of time.”

Q - Has the course helped you develop any practical skills or strategies for supporting
individuals who are facing death or experiencing grief? Can you provide examples of how you
might apply these skills in a professional setting?
A – “I don't have an answer to this.”

Q - Reflecting on your overall experience in the palliative psychology course, how do you think
it has contributed to your personal growth and development? Do you feel better equipped to
navigate discussions and experiences related to life and death?
A – “Based on what all we have learnt in this course; I personally have gained a lot of awareness.
Like I just mentioned, death is not everything and the time that we have now, we should see how
we live that limited time. That's what we have learnt mostly, how we express our feelings and
emotions in this limited amount of time. We already know that we are going to die, so why stress
over it. Instead, we can utilize and invest our time in better things like making connections and
everything. Even if something does happen to me, there will be some people who will help me,
that’s what's taught in this course.”

Q - Do you think there are any misconceptions or societal taboos surrounding discussions of life
and death? Has the course helped challenge or dispel any of these misconceptions?
A – “Like I mentioned before, if there is awareness, there won’t be misconception. If you know
that there's this thing called as palliative psychology as a subject, you'll know that the death is
going to be death only. There are a lot of examples where a person is bedridden, and someone
comes and gives them sympathy and tells them to get better. The person giving these wishes
thinks that this is a good advice, but the bedridden person feels bad about this that now
everything is over that’s why everyone is coming to meet me and all. But instead, if we visit
them and do activities, talk, play games and make them feel free and included, the person will
understand that whatever time is left, its going well. But people who have this awareness only
will be able to do this. But when people don't know about all this, there definitely will be
misconception because they don't even know about palliative care. I haven't seen any situations
where there were misconceptions about life and death. Our family does talk about life and death
but in the sense that "oh what will happen if I go through all this? That’s so bad." And all that.
They don’t see death positively.”
Demographics, Participant 2:
Name: A.K
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Socio economic status: Middle class
Occupation: student
Education: Post graduation

Q - Can you describe your understanding and beliefs about life and death before participating in
the palliative psychology course?
A – “Okay. My belief system about life and death is the same because I come from a very
multicultural background, and I have a family of 22 people. So, perspective towards life and
death is not something that changed because my family was open about it. Communication was
very open and all that, so the course only gave me a very detailed understanding how others’
perspective of life and death and also during chronic illness and terminal illness how palliative
care comes into play and what are the sectors it works in well and the awareness part of it mostly,
yeah.”

Q - what motivated you to choose palliative as your subject?

A – “Because I knew about palliative psychology before, but it was just as what it is and not in
detail and how it works and what is the scope in clinical psychology. So, all those things I
wanted to know that’s why I wanted to take up this course; and I know the scope is very good
because people are unaware of it and now, they are being aware that it’s important to know
patients’ perspective also, and not just caregivers. So, it’s a very… um… a version that combines
lots of things, everyone’s perspective and finds a way out.”

Q - How has the palliative psychology course influenced or changed your understanding of life
and death? In what ways has it challenged or expanded your previous beliefs or perspectives?
A – “So um… my belief system is same about life and death, it’s not changed or anything but
yeah, it expanded my experience that… I first used to think it is very normal to talk about life
and death because of my family but right now I understood it’s not so common in other people, it
sounds very weird to them or its kind of very ashubh when they talk about it, so yeah it expanded
my knowledge in those terms.”
Q - Do you believe that conventional methods, such as formal education or religious teachings,
are sufficient for understanding life and death? Or do you think alternative or unconventional
approaches are also important? Why?
A – “So I don’t know about unconventional approaches like I can’t think of anything right now
but yeah conventional methods… its like they should know about life and death they should
know about others’ perspective on life and death; also, religious teachings, scientific methods
are… both are important. Religious teachings are more about emotional part of it and also very
rational part of scientists have said that it’s a neutral par and the religious teachings say about the
God stuff so yeah they are important unless and… it’s like most important till… when it helps a
person to build one’s identity that’s more important, so whichever way is good for them they
should go about it.”

Q - Have you encountered any unconventional methods or practices during the course that have
influenced your understanding of life and death? If so, can you provide examples and explain
their impact?
A – “I have no idea, like I can’t think of anything right now.”

Q - In your opinion, what are the benefits and limitations of conventional and unconventional
methods in acquiring knowledge about life and death?
A – “In my opinion, um… benefits of having knowledge of life and death is important to
understand what you are and what you want to be and how you see your future and stuff like
that. Limitations… sometimes it goes the other way around its more upsetting it’s more like
that.”

Q - How do you think the knowledge and insights gained from the course will impact your future
interactions with individuals who are facing death or experiencing grief?
A – “I will be more conscious about talking... related to death because people have different
experiences and talking so openly is not so acceptable and may trigger them so yeah. I will be
more conscious, and I have learned about certain ways of talking about it... in a non-triggering
way.”

Q - Has the course helped you develop any practical skills or strategies for supporting
individuals who are facing death or experiencing grief? Can you provide examples of how you
might apply these skills in a professional setting?
A – “I have no idea how I will apply these skills in practical settings because till now I haven't
practiced it. So, I know theoretically but practically how it will work out for me, I have no idea.”

Q - Reflecting on your overall experience in the palliative psychology course, how do you think
it has contributed to your personal growth and development? Do you feel better equipped to
navigate discussions and experiences related to life and death?
A – “Yeah, overall, it benefitted a lot um... it’s now much easier and the vocabulary has
improved in terms of talking about life and death. That, and I also mentioned about the non-
triggering way and um also overall understanding of different perspectives. First, I only had
beliefs and perspectives of what I had in me but then now I understand how people perceive it,
how people react to it, so yes. And also, the awareness about palliative psychology, it's very less
it needs a lot of awareness and insight about all these things.”

Q - Do you think there are any misconceptions or societal taboos surrounding discussions of life
and death? Has the course helped challenge or dispel any of these misconceptions?
A – “So as I mentioned, it was not so difficult in my family to talk about life or death, but yeah.
As soon as the course started, when I started talking to people when I know what their perception
was like, I’m talking about the ashubh (unfortunate) ... so yeah got to know all those taboos, and
it’s like behavioral therapy where you change the cognition about all these stuffs and make it
more easier to talk about it. So yeah, not just this but the whole MSc course helps us to challenge
all the taboos, stereotypes and misconceptions about all those things.”