Death, Dying, and Social Differences
David Oliviere, Barbara Monroe, and Sheila Payne
Abstract
Society has become increasingly diverse: multi-cultural, multi-faith, and wide ranging in family structures. The wealthier are healthier and social inequalities are more pronounced. Respecting and working with the range of ‘differences’ among service users, families, and communities in health and social care with ill, dying, and bereaved people is a neglected area in the literature. As the principles of palliative and end-of-life care increasingly permeate the mainstream of health and social care services, it is important that professionals are sensitive and respond to the differing needs of i ... More
Society has become increasingly diverse: multi-cultural, multi-faith, and wide ranging in family structures. The wealthier are healthier and social inequalities are more pronounced. Respecting and working with the range of ‘differences’ among service users, families, and communities in health and social care with ill, dying, and bereaved people is a neglected area in the literature. As the principles of palliative and end-of-life care increasingly permeate the mainstream of health and social care services, it is important that professionals are sensitive and respond to the differing needs of individuals from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, ethnicities, beliefs, abilities, and sexual orientations, as well as to the different contexts and social environments in which people live and die. This book explores what underpins inequality, disadvantage, and injustice in access to good end-of-life care. Increasingly clinicians, policy planners, and academics are concerned about inequity in service provision. Internationally, there is an increasing focus and sense of urgency both on delivering good care in all settings regardless of diagnosis, and on better meeting the needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. National initiatives emphasize the importance of resolving disparities in care and harnessing empowered user voices to drive change.
Keywords:
family structures,
social inequalities,
social care services,
socio-economic background,
ethnicity,
belief,
sexual orientation,
inequality,
injustice
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199599295 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2012 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199599295.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
David Oliviere, editor
Director of Education and Training, St Christopher's Hospice, Sydenham, London; Visiting Professor, Middlesex University, London, UK
Barbara Monroe, editor
Chief Executive, St Christopher's Hospice, Sydenham, London; Honorary Professor, International Observatory on End of Life Care, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
Sheila Payne, editor
Director of the International Observatory on End of Life Care, and Help the Hospices Chair in Hospice Studies, Lancaster University, Lancaster; Director of the Cancer Experiences Collaborative, UK
More
Less
