Death, Rituals And Funerals Flashcards
What is a culture?
Most focus on particular group and their customs, traditions, ways to create meaning
Overlap with ethnicity, nationality, religion
More flexible
What is the Medicalisation of death
People die in hospitals rather than home
Medical intervention may interrupt natural death and may be distressing for family
The dying person may have expressed their wishes to stop medical intervention e.g. DNR
Negotiation btw medical professionals and family on what is desirable e.g. pain management/ feeding tube
Concepts of palliative care
Built on openness and acceptance of being at the end of life
Autonomy of dying person is very important
Main aim is improving quality not quantity of life
Death can be in a hospice or at home rather than a medical site
Reasons why death has become less cultural
Medicine taking over from religion and family
Death takes place in hospital mostly
Professionals prepare body for funeral
Sociological discussions of denial of death in secularised countries
Inequalities in palliative care
People from BaME communities
Less access to palliative care
Less likely to undertake formal advance care planning
Existing inequalities made greater due to covid
Why do people from BAME communities have less access to palliative care and formal advance care planning
- Different illness patterns
- Lack of awareness of services
- Is planning for death a meaningful concept in BAME cultures
- Lack of referrals by GPs (hospices are connected to Christians)
- Hospices often staffed by white British Christian people
- Asian families are more likely to look after their own so dont need palliative care
- Need for interpreters (worry that these services aren’t provided)
What is cultural competence (training)
Many definitions and models of cultural competence/ cultural sensitivity
Involve training of a range of knowledge, skills and attitudes in intercultural encounters in healthcare
Critiques of cultural training:
Hard to evaluate - are needs being met?
Focuses on the individual (entire role placed on staff member) while attitudes are meant to be embedded in workplace
Health providers feel overwhelmed
Training may be too general not helpful - “fact file” approach is not enough
Culture may be foregrounded and individual preferences lost
Openness/ questioning is recommended
What is the ASKED model of cultural competence (Campinha-Bacote 2003)
Have I ASKED myself the right question?
- Awareness of how own background shapes interaction with others
- Knowledge of culturally diverse groups
- Skill to integrate knowledge into clinical practice
- Desire to want to engage and learn with individuals from diff cultures
Process requires experience
What are the functions of rituals in general
The living say goodbye and progress with their lives
Alleviates feelings of guilt for survivors
The living pay respects to dead
Respectfully dealing with actual body
Helps acceptance of death
Why funerals are important?
Funerals shaped by tradition and religion
Symbolic of patients beliefs
Some funerals social events for comfort and remembrance
Traditions can be comforting e.g. churchyard burial can be comforting for unfirm believers
Death creates a painful rift in society which a funeral repairs
Important role for the dead persons family
In some societies, dead person seen as threatening until death is marked by a ceremony
Who attends a funeral?
A group/ neighbourhood coming together
People with specific roles (bearing coffin/ throwing earth)
Some traditions restrictive e.g. men only
Difference between societies (Laungani & Young 1997):
Private vs public
Show grief vs not show grief
Examples of large scale collective mournings
State/ royal funerals
Death of a celeb
Funeral of victims of violence
Protest marches
What are death rituals
- Symbolic actions performed at or after death
- Common/ recognisable to a society or group
- Expressing he groups/ society’s values
- Can be linked to religion/ belief
- Enables dead to journey on to the afterlife
- Ensures the dead will be remembered
