Table 2 Inclusion and exclusion/drop-out criteria

• Patient was at least 18 years old.

• Informal caregiver experiences emotional distress or lack of resilience.

• Patient died no earlier than on the third day of inpatient stay (including day of admission and day of death) so that caregivers had the opportunity to visit the patient and experience quality of dying and death in the palliative care environment.

• Informal caregiver is not sufficiently able to understand and speak German.

• Informal caregiver is at least 18 years old.

• Informal caregiver is cognitively impaired.

• Informal caregiver is sufficiently capable of speaking and understanding German.

• Informal caregiver has withdrawn his/her informed consent.

• Informal caregiver has had personal contact with the patient during the last seven days of life in the palliative care unit.

• Informal caregiver cannot be contacted.

• Informal caregiver has signed informed written consent for study participation.