Palliative care services are increasingly emerging in diverse cultural settings around the globe. Given the large cultural diversity in end-of-life care practices, we ask: How do global palliative care practices translate to various cultural contexts? How do they impact local notions of death and dying? And how, in turn, do culturally diverse practices of end-of-life care shape the practice of palliative care? This project studies the globalization and cultural mediation of palliative care practices, policies and discourses. Our ethnographic research focuses on three countries that are currently building a system of professional palliative care provisions:
In Indonesia palliative care is most developed in a few large tertiary hospitals, but is currently including a growing number professional initiatives across the archipelago. Ethnographic research will focus mainly on Jakarta and Banda Aceh.
India has multiple promising palliative care programmes and initiatives, amongst others a successful community-based palliative care system in Kerala. Research for this project focuses on end-of-life care in the capital of India: New Delhi.
In Brazil, palliative care units and initiatives are concentrated in urban centers and mostly located in hospitals. The research will both take place in institutions and follow families in the home setting. Fieldwork will be carried out in the metropolitan context of Sao Paulo and smaller towns in southern Brazil.
Wednesday 9 February 2022 Annemarie Samuels and Liesbeth van Vliet co-organised a public debate night in De Balie called ‘I’m afraid it’s rather bad news’. During this event doctors, patients and other medical experts discussed the future of the bad news conversation. The evening has been recorded and can be now be viewed online.
Wednesday 9 February 2022, Anthony Back, Anne Rios, Jonathan Koffman, Marike de Meij and Evelien van Manten-Horst will discuss the future of the bad news conversation during the program ‘I’m afraid it’s rather bad news’ in De Balie in Amsterdam. What do patients and their families need from their doctors? Are medical professionals properly equipped to deal with this difficult task? The programme is made in collaboration with Dr. Liesbeth van Vliet and Dr. Annemarie Samuels.
On the 17th of November the GPC team had a very inspiring brainstorm about using audio-visual methods in ethnographic research on care. Many thanks to Dr. Federico de Musso for sharing with us a range of ideas on photography, drawing, filming, the role of pictures in research collaboration, and ethics of audiovisual methods and representation. As we prepare for fieldwork, it is very exciting to explore a whole range of possible methods for studying globalizing palliative care.