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Racial Disparity In Hospice Care

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In recent years growing attention has been giving to the fact that African Americans are less likely to pursue hospice care at the end of their lives. This paper will first examine the case for hospice and why it is a valuable resource and one that is consistent with Christian values. Then, I will survey the data regarding African Americans and hospice, particularly looking at considering what the main factors are for the racial disparity of hospice users. I conclude the main factor is distrust for the healthcare system as a result of centuries of medical abuse, experimentation and neglect. In light of this racist healthcare history, I will consider theologically what a Christian response to the racial disparity in hospice care is by using …show more content…
While both focus on patient support, family support and comfort care, a key difference between the two is that while palliative care may be concurrent with medical treatment, hospice takes place when a person agrees to abandon curative options. Hospice care became prominent in the United States in the 1970s after having developed in the United Kingdom previously. While hospice care might seem newer in that regard, it could be argued its roots extend much farther back into religious hospitals and organizations dedicated to caring for the sick and dying. In fact, “hospice pioneers saw their origins in the tradition of the religious hospices of medieval Christendom, where travelers were housed and also nursed if sick.” Hospice has increased in size from one facility in 1974 to over 5000 in 2009. This growth has been particularly helped by funding from Medicare, which no covers hospice care for patients who agree to choose it over other treatment options and who are certified as terminally ill by a physician. Hospice cites many benefits including “improved patient quality of life, increased satisfaction with care among patients and family caregivers, and reduced medical expenditures in the last days of life.” Despite these and other benefits, hospice is still often misunderstood and stigmatized as ‘giving up on a person.’ This stigma is often noticed particularly in …show more content…
As a physician, Gawande is intimately aware of modern medicine’s crusade to conquer death, often through any and all measures. However, he points to a study done in 2008 as an example of when these life sustaining interventions cause more harm than good. The study showed that terminally ill cancer patients who used measures such as mechanical ventilators, electric defibrillation and chest compressions to prolong life actually reported significantly worse quality of life in their final week compared to those who did not have these interventions—and their caregivers are three times more likely to have major depression after their loved one’s death. To avoid this phenomenon of greater intensive measures resulting in less satisfaction and comfort, Gawande posits hospice as a possible alternative. Despite being a physician, he acknowledges his own ignorance around hospice care aside from knowing it is a form of comfort care for terminally ill that takes place in private homes or in special facilities. He comes to describe hospice as helping people “with fatal illness have the fullest possible lives right

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