What is Equity-Oriented Palliative Care?
Program overview :
Palliative care that meets people where they are at
Most definitions of palliative care focus on improving quality of life and alleviating pain and suffering for people throughout the course of their serious illness. It is generally understood that the goal of palliative care is to enable people to die with dignity. This involves taking a holistic and person-centered approach to ensure the specific needs and preferences of each person is met. This approach also includes supporting friends and families in their grief and bereavement.
While this definition helps us to understand what palliative care might look like in practice, the underlying social, economic, cultural structures that create and perpetuate health inequities are often overlooked. These are known as the structural determinants of health.
An equity-oriented definition of palliative care recognizes system barriers and seeks to address them to ensure access to high-quality and safe care.
In the Improving Equity in Access to Palliative Care (IEAPC) collaborative, we are learning how communities are shifting their approach to palliative care to better meet the needs of people who are experiencing structural vulnerabilities.
While examples of equity-oriented palliative care might look slightly different in each community, we encourage you to consider how more equitable access to palliative care can be improved in your community by:
Reflecting on aspects of your organization that create barriers to care. This could include policies, physical spaces, location and more. Engage your community in these conversations.
Collaborating across sectors to identify and address system gaps. Build meaningful partnerships with community-based organizations that are already doing the work to integrate care.
Identifying opportunities to build capacity. Exchange learnings within your community and across organizations.
Planning for sustainability in mind. Consider what data you can start collecting (or may already collect) that will help you better understand who is accessing care in your community and where.
