International palliative care: Middle East experience as a model for global palliative care.
Care for elderly people with life-limiting illness cannot be delivered primarily by geriatricians or palliative care practitioners. The role of these clinicians is to help carers become adept in palliative care medicine. In a culture in which family ties run deep, the offer of palliative care from an outsider may be met with suspicion. The family bond in the Middle East is strong, but the emotional response to terminal illness may push families to request futile treatments, and physicians to comply. When palliative care is well developed and well understood, it provides a viable alternative to such extreme terminal measures.
Geriatrics Medicine and Palliative Care Service, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Riad El Solh, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon.
Ramzi R
RR
Hajjar
Clinical Oncologist, The Bank of Cyprus Oncology Centre, 32 Acropoleus Avenue, Strovolos, Nicosia 2006, The Republic of Cyprus.
Haris A
HA
Charalambous
Psycho-Oncology Services, Assuta Medical Center, 20 Habarzel Street, Tel Aviv 69710, Israel.
Lea
L
Baider
The Middle East Cancer Consortium, 15 Kiryat Sefer str, Haifa 3467630, Israel. Electronic address: cancer@mecc-research.com.
Michael
M
Silbermann
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005195:Family Relations / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008877:Middle East; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000941:ethics / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics*; D019366:Western World
Aging; Cancer care; Culture; Family; Illness; Middle East; Palliative care; Treatment