Home Care NetWork
Home Care Literature Reviews 2004
Hospice:
Lorenz KA, Ettner SL, Rosenfeld KE, Carlisle D, Liu H, Asch SM. Accommodating ethnic diversity: a study of California hospice programs. Med Care. 2004;42:871-4.
This survey of California hospices analyzed the relationship between services provided by the hospice that might increase minority participation and hospice characteristics. The authors identified translation services, ethnic diversity among providers and diverse spiritual services as being important to an ethnically diverse population. Their analysis found that larger hospices and hospices in ethnically diverse zip codes were more likely to feature these resources. This analysis is indirect in that the hypothesis that the services would, in fact, result in increased service to diverse ethnic populations was not tested. Nonetheless it offers interesting insights into the relationship between populations, hospice size and the above services.
Grande GE, Farquhar MC, Barclay SI, Todd CJ. Valued aspects of primary palliative care: content analysis of bereaved carers' descriptions. Br J Gen Pract. 2004;54:772-8.
This British survey of 50 caregivers investigated their perception of the value of support supplied by district physicians and nurses. The respondents identified accessibility to the doctors and nurses as the most important elements of support. Identification of agencies, provision of equipment and the attitudes of the various supporting agencies were also felt to be important. Interestingly, direct support for the caregiver, information regarding the disease process and attention to symptom control were less often identified as being important. It's an interesting comment on the psychology of caregiving with the caregivers concerned centered on the patient's well-being rather than their own.
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