Health · Healthcare & Policy · 1 hr ago
An occupational therapist helps dying patients find comfort and connection
Occupational therapist Esther Lim supports patients nearing the end of life at St Luke’s Hospital in Singapore.
She has worked with palliative care patients there since 2023, after joining the hospital in 2014.
Patients in the ward generally have a prognosis of three months or less and may have advanced cancer, organ failure or neurological conditions.
Her work focuses on comfort, meaning and closure, rather than restoring independence.
She helps patients manage pain, fatigue and breathlessness, and adapt tasks or their surroundings.
Some patients want to spend time at home with family, make keepsakes or reconnect with someone they have lost touch with.
Many worry about the loved ones they will leave behind, including whether they can cope emotionally or financially.
Lim’s work aims to help patients find comfort and create meaningful memories with the people who matter to them.
Esther Lim, an occupational therapist at St Luke’s Hospital, helps patients nearing the end of life find comfort and connection.
Many patients focus on loved ones they will leave behind, and some want to create memories or fulfil personal wishes.
Lim says palliative occupational therapy focuses on comfort, meaning and closure rather than restoring function or independence.
Patients in the palliative care ward generally have a prognosis of three months or less.
Lim said an encounter with a patient who asked to hold her hand changed how she thought about supporting people nearing the end of life.
- Who
- Esther Lim, an occupational therapist at St Luke’s Hospital, and patients nearing the end of life.
- What
- Lim helps patients find comfort, explore meaning and fulfil personal wishes.
- When
- Lim began working with palliative care patients in 2023.
- Where
- St Luke’s Hospital in Bukit Batok, Singapore.
- Why
- To support patients with life-limiting illnesses and help them find comfort, meaning and closure.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Lim joined St Luke’s Hospital and rotated through several wards.
Lim began working with palliative care patients.
- Therapist
- Esther Lim
- Hospital
- St Luke’s Hospital
- Location
- Bukit Batok
- Palliative care work began
- 2023
- Typical ward prognosis
- Three months or less
- Patient ages
- Their 30s to over 100
1 source
What people are saying
A fair share of our patients are concerned not so much for themselves, but whether their loved ones can cope emotionally or financially after they are gone.
In palliative care, the goals of OT are not so much of restoring function or independence, but about bringing comfort, exploring meaning and having closure.
I just held his hand and assured him that he’s not alone in that journey, and that the healthcare team will continue to walk alongside him.