Outlook: An Intervention to Improve Quality of Life in Serious Illness

This is a pilot randomized control trial to evaluate the feasibility of the Outlook intervention. 36 veterans with advanced cancer, congestive heart failure (CHF) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) will be randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups and complete a brief battery of pre-test measures. Subjects in the first group ("treatment") will meet with a facilitator three times for a period of 45 min-1 hour. In the first session, subjects will be asked to discuss issues related to life review. In the second session, participants will be asked to speak in more depth about issues such as regret, forgiveness and things left undone, In the final session, subjects will focus on heritage and legacy. The subjects in the second group ("attention control") will meet with a facilitator three times for a period of 45 min- 1 hour and listen to a non-guided relaxation compact disk (CD). The third group of participants ("true control") will be exposed to no intervention or attention control. One week and two weeks later, participants in all groups will receive post-test measures administered by a blinded interviewer.