Principles of respect for autonomy, beneficence, and nonmaleficence guide trauma-informed care. Care ethics should also support this framework for responding to the health needs of trafficked patients.

Although effective, opioid agonist therapy is associated with stigma and thus underutilized for treatment of opioid use disorder in incarcerated settings.

Veterans at the end of life have special needs due to posttraumatic stress disorder, environmental exposures, and the influence of military culture on their values. Those who die outside the Veterans Affairs health care system, however, can be at increased risk for receiving outpatient palliative care that is not sensitive to these factors.

Massachusetts legislation limiting supply of first-time opioid prescriptions creates opportunity for interprofessional collaboration on drug policy.

Uncertainty about which psychiatric interventions are palliative stems from psychiatry’s prioritization of symptom management regardless of diagnosis. 

Palliative psychiatry can facilitate compassionate resolution of ethical conflicts in end-of-life care decision making with persons with substance use disorders.  

Given full information about the risks of long-term opioid therapy, patients often see the value of exploring other options rather than thinking their physicians are reluctant to prescribe narcotics for fear of litigation or regulatory action.

An educational initiative is described in which medical and bioethics students observe health care in an urban jail for two days and reflect on their learning.

Dr Brent M. Kious joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article, coauthored with Dr Ryan H. Nelson: “Does It Matter Whether a Psychiatric Intervention Is ‘Palliative’?”

 

Dr Cynthia Geppert joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article: “Is There a Case for Palliative Care Addiction Psychiatry?”