Webinar Addresses Cultural Obstacles In Hospice Care

 WASHINGTON -- The Hospice Foundation of America, a non-profit end of life care organization,  has developed "Addressing Cultural Diversity in Hospice Care," a free online webinar that looks at how, and why, different cultures may, or may not, utilize hospice.

The online tutorial aims to prepare and equip hospice organizations, and its providers and volunteers, with strategies and information to meet the needs of culturally diverse patients and loved ones.

"It is a human instinct to hope for comfort, peace, and dignity, and to be surrounded by loved ones at the end of life," says Lisa McGahey Veglahn, Program Officer at Hospice Foundation of America. "And yet, there are differences in how people cope with dying and death."  

HFA's new free online webinar looks at how backgrounds and cultures can influence end-of-life experiences, including how people deal with a terminal diagnosis and grieve a death. Many elements make up a person's culture -- language, social circumstance, religion and spirituality, sexual orientation and gender.

All of these can impact how individuals find meaning and purpose in their living and dying and come to terms with the loss and remembrance of family and loved ones.

As the Office of Minority Health notes, "Quite simply, health care services that are respectful of and responsive to the health beliefs, practices and cultural and linguistic needs of diverse patients can help bring about positive health outcomes."  The outcome can include a good hospice care experience at the end-of-life.