Cultural and Religious Values of Caregivers at End of Life Care: The Case of Hospice Ethiopia Palliative Center, Addis Ababa Ethiopia
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Date
2017-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Death and dying issue is what we humans find inevitable but most uncomfortable topic to discuss. In a country like Ethiopia, such topics are taken as a taboo and feared to talk about death and dying from the religious and cultural value we hold. This thesis is a qualitative exploratory case study aimed at cultural and religious values of caregivers at end of life care. The caregivers are both family and professional caregivers who provide care for people on the verge of death. The tools for primary data collection were in-depth interviews and observation in order to gain in-depth information. Purposive sampling technique was used to select participants leading to three professional caregivers and eight family caregivers. The finding of this study indicated that cultural and religious values have a great contribution while caring for people at the verge of death. It is important to give values as it has impact on the action of caregivers. In addition, the availability and use of social support has a great contribution and there are family members who are suffering lacking such support. Due to the cultural and religious values, family members have experienced lives that are stressful in care giving. Therefore, the finding has a good contribution for social work implication as the school of social work should incorporate courses that would give social workers a great skill and knowledge of palliative care. Regarding to practice, it is quite important to work with like-minded organization as to plan trainings, seminars and experience sharing programs. The finding showed that there is a lack of social work intervention in the area and it is important to study the view of clients themselves in the service provision. As the Ministry of Health is now giving attention to palliative care having the unit under its umbrella, there should be funding and human resources that could benefit for the quality of service provision and addressing large number of people
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End of life Care; Cultural Values; Palliative Care and Religious Values