Systemic and Racial Barriers to Palliative Care

Those who have known an individual with a chronic medical condition or someone that has been diagnosed with a terminal illness have experienced the physical and emotional toll these diagnoses have on both patients and their loved ones. Medical providers encounter these situations daily and are often responsible for assisting the patient and their family in the decision-making process. The specialty of Hospice and Palliative Medicine was created specifically with these difficult, but very common, situations in mind. Even though the concept of palliative care has become mainstream and its practice is considered standard of care in many situations, it continues to be misunderstood, misrepresented, and underutilized, despite providing measurable benefits to patients, families and the healthcare system. This paper explores two systemic barriers to palliative care that contribute to this problem and highlights how race, cultural mistrust, and a long history of racial disparities in health care work together to undermine the effective delivery of palliative care.

Grantor dc:publisher

Temple University. Libraries

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Iannacone, Stephen Mark

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jones, Nora L.

• Medical ethics
• Barriers
• Hospice
• Palliative care
• Quality of care
• Race

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/1488

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/1488