Servicing Multi‐cultural Needs at the End of Life

Abstract

Ethnic and cultural diversity are widespread across the world, but there is growing concern that end-of-life care is not offering Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups the most appropriate services. This article explores the experiences of BAME patients with advanced disease and the response of the healthcare professionals who care for them. Key questions include cultural influences on symptoms of advanced disease, communication and the role of religion and spirituality.

‘Contradictions in having care providers with a South Sami background who speak South Sami’: older South Sami People in Sweden's expectations of home nursing care

“…McCormack & McCance stress the importance of being met as a unique person with individual beliefs and values when receiving care, and this can create a feeling of at‐homeness for care receivers, and for the participants in our study, this can be by care receivers with or without a South Sami background depending on the care receiver's desires. This can be related to the fact that the care providers must not lose sight of what might be the needs and concerns of the individual person receiving care, regardless of the care provider's own conscious or unconscious bias .…”

An EAPC white paper on multi-disciplinary education for spiritual care in palliative care

“…The question of culture and cultural competencies emerges frequently in discussions of palliative care [86][87][88][89][90]) but the evidence on culturally specific needs in palliative care is extremely limited [85,91], suggesting that this is an area that requires more research.…”

Multiculturalism in Healthcare: A Review of Current Research into Diversity Found in the Healthcare Professional Population and the Patient Population

“…14,29 Shefer et al 26 explored the views and attitudes of healthcare: self-critical (biomedical), medical critical, traditional and integrating; highlighting the different aspects to consider when trying to engage people and the relative importance of healthcare to each individual. These points of view can vary across a variety of topics: medications seen as both harmful and helpful, 30 assisted dying and euthanasia, 19,31,32 and what counts as an illness within the society. 26 This may lead to the development of a lack of understanding of their own health,…”

“…Here they look predominantly at the differences between their home country's healthcare system and the new healthcare system of the country they have moved to, showing that there are changes in the way the healthcare professionals behave and act around the patient, 44 especially the spoken and body language aspects of communication. 25,32 There are also circumstantial factors which play a part in acting as barriers such as financial status and socioeconomic status that have been found to result in low service use. 7,8,36,38 In addition, experiential factors such as long waiting times, care that does not meet their standards, and a lack of transport to access the healthcare can reduce service use.…”

“…This lack of understanding of different cultures is being seen to impact not only the patient-physician relationship, but also the relationship between healthcare professionals 55 when their cross-cultural experiences could be used as an educational benefit, for other healthcare professionals to learn from. 32,58 Cultural Competence Training…”