Death Is a Social Justice Issue: Perspectives on Equity-Informed Palliative Care.
All too often, palliative care services are not responsive to the needs of those who are doubly vulnerable, being that they are both in need of palliative care services and experiencing deficits in the social determinants of health that result in complex, intersecting health and social concerns. In this article, we argue for a reorientation of palliative care to explicitly integrate the premises of health equity. We articulate the philosophical, theoretical, and empirical scaffolding required for equity-informed palliative care and draw on a current study to illustrate such an approach to the care of people who experience structural vulnerabilities.
School of Nursing, Trinity Western University, Canada (Dr Reimer-Kirkham); School of Nursing and Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health (Drs Stajduhar and Giesbrecht), School of Nursing and Centre for Addictions Research of BC (Dr Pauly), Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health (Ms Mollison), and School of Social Work and Centre for Addictions Research of BC (Dr Wallace), University of Victoria, Canada; and British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS & Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Canada (Dr McNeil).
Sheryl
S
Reimer-Kirkham
Kelli
K
Stajduhar
Bernie
B
Pauly
Melissa
M
Giesbrecht
Ashley
A
Mollison
Ryan
R
McNeil
Bruce
B
Wallace
D001294:Attitude to Health; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D024802:Nurse's Role; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing; D012935:Social Justice