Dying-well: the contribution of leisure services to hospice care

Leisure has suffered a neglect in the palliative care literature, with clinically driven narratives often overlooking the pivotal role leisure plays within this landscape. A problem inherent in much of the existing literature is that although scholars agree about the blending of hedonia and eudaimonia, the lines between them are blurred. Therefore, this paper contributes to the existing literature by fleshing out the middle ground of the hedonia and eudaimonia continuum. Here, the authors’ term this point of equilibrium transitional leisure, which projects a liminal state of well-being. Interview data is collected from in/day/outpatients, families, and the bereaved (n = 140) associated with multiple hospices (n = 5). Findings detail the contribution of therapeutic services, therapeutic spaces, and therapeutic places to well-being. Conclusions add a further dimension to the well-being literature, an appreciation of ‘dying-well’ and the middle ground of transitional leisure. Practical implications for enhancing service delivery are presented.