Death is a certainty of life. But the end of life can be an uncertain time, with a range of decisions to make about health and well-being. Palliative care aims to improve quality of life for patients, and their families, when faced with life-threatening illness. Addressing suffering at the end of life involves going beyond physical symptoms. Good palliative care prevents and relieves suffering by also addressing psychosocial and spiritual issues. The importance of palliative care has grown as populations age and live longer with chronic illnesses, with increased time spent in the palliative stages of illness.
Cultural norms, beliefs and expectations influence how people think about a “good death”. Clinicians and policy-makers have recognized that palliative care could better incorporate understandings of cultural contexts. Such understandings could enable the design of more appropriate, respectful and effective palliative care strategies that are sensitive to individual and cultural preferences.
This webinar will feature an interdisciplinary panel, who will explore the cultural contexts of palliative care practices and policy. How can palliative care become more sensitive to different cultural contexts? How should policy-makers incorporate cultural understandings into their palliative care strategies and policies? How can patients and caregivers lead this change?
The webinar will be live streamed at 15:00–16:00 CEST (14:00–15:00 GMT+1)
