Final answer:
Support workers provide comfort and end-of-life care to promote emotional well-being, deliver support benefits to families, and address critical psychosocial needs during this challenging time.
Step-by-step explanation:
Support workers provide comfort and end-of-life care to dying clients primarily to promote emotional well-being. In this sensitive phase, the presence of professional care is key to enabling the client and their families to cope with the impending loss. Research has demonstrated that hospice care not only potentially extends the life of the patient but also offers substantial benefits for the patient's psychological and emotional state. Families of the dying individual often experience reduced burden and increased support, which contribute to better overall coping during and after the period of terminal illness.
Furthermore, psychosocial needs are critically important at the end of life; having a support network that provides emotional and practical support can help dying individuals and their loved ones to process and handle the difficult emotions that accompany death. However, the preferences of individuals for end-of-life care can be complicated, involving ethical dilemmas in medicine and personal belief systems that offer comfort in the face of death. While death in a hospice setting offers a controlled and familiar environment, many still prefer the intimacy and comfort of their own homes.