End-of-life experiences and expectations of Africans in Australia

Abstract

The ageing and frail migrants who are at the end of life are an increasing share of migrants living in Australia. However, within such populations, information about end-of-life experiences is limited, particularly among Africans. This article provides some insights into the sociocultural end-of-life experiences of Africans in Australia and their interaction with the health services in general and end-oflife care in particular. It provides points for discussion to consider ethical framework that include Afrocommunitarian ethical principles to enhance the capacity of current health services to provide culturally appropriate and ethical care. This article contributes to our knowledge regarding the provision of culturally appropriate and ethical care to African patients and their families by enabling the learning of health service providers to improve the competence of palliative care systems and professionals in Australia. Additionally, it initi-ates the discussion to highlight the importance of paying sufficient attention to diverse range of factors including the migration history when providing palliative and hospice care for patients from African migrant populations.

Attitudes of Nonpalliative Care Nurses towards Palliative Care

“…Cultural differences in beliefs and values also play a role in the health care professionals' attitudes towards death and dying, thus impacting the provision of palliative care [18][19][20]. For example, in some cultures, family and community are deemed to be more important while the concepts of individuality and autonomy are important in western cultures [18,20].…”

Injured bodies, damaged lives: experiences and narratives of Kenyan women with obstetric fistula and Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting

“…In addition to direct complications as stated above, evidence exists implicating FGM/C as one of the risk factors for HIV transmission in communal settings, as it involves the sharing of cutting instruments such as knives and razors [12, 22, 44]. …”

“…Despite the existence of strong traditions of African communitarian, which provide social networks, identity and sense of belonging to communities [12], the power inequalities between women and men seem to be problematic in patriarchal communities such as in Kenya. This paper demonstrates that due to such power imbalances and marginalisation of women, FGM/C is practised without considering what harmful impacts it can cause on women and those surrounding them.…”

“…We have used SNT in recognition of the African (including Kenyan) collectivist characteristics/behaviours, where the idea of the community as a collectivist is commonly accepted to influencing actions in the entire and/or part of the community [25]. The African communal way of life and social networking, brings together family members, relatives and other people forming ‘a community,’ that is heavily involved in communal events [12], which may include – as would be expected in the current study – the celebration of the FGM/C practices which are performed to initiate young women to adulthood. These traditional community networks and dynamics are very complex but important, as they provide communities with identity, a medium for shared experiences and a sense of belonging [26].…”

Assuaging death anxiety in older overseas-born Australians of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds hospitalised for end-of-life care

“…Despite a growing recognition of the importance of providing EOL care that is "culturally appropriate" for patients of diverse cultural and language backgrounds, there is a lack of Australian research systematically investigating cross-cultural considerations in EOL care for older immigrants of CALD backgrounds and the influence that culture might have on the provision of appropriate care (Broom, Good, Kirby & Lwin, 2013;Hiruy & Mwanri 2013;Johnstone, Hutchinson, Rawson & Redley, 2015;McNamara, Martin, Waddell & Yuen, 1997). This is so despite calls by some international researchers for "culture" to be made a priority in EOL care research (Gysels et al, 2012).…”