A Cultural Perspective on Challenges to the Use of Hospice Services in New Zealand

Background: During the past 33 years New Zealand has developed hospice services based on the British model for caring for patients with life limiting illnesses. Given the rise in demand from an ageing and increasingly diverse patient population, do palliative care hospice services as shaped by a Western perspective adequately fulfil the needs for persons from non-western cultures?  The aim of this research was to identify challenges to hospice service use for Māori Pacific and Asian clients in the use of hospice.

Method: The project involved qualitative interviews with 36 Maori, Pacific and Asian cancer patients,  whanau/family  as well as 15 health professionals (e.g. referring GPs, oncologists, allied health professionals) in one district health board.

Findings: Challenges to hospice service utilisation included a lack of awareness in the communities of available services as well as continuing misconceptions concerning the nature of hospice. Language barriers were particularly reported for Asian patients and their families.  Issues concerning the cultural safety and ethnic representativeness of the hospice staff were raised.

Conclusion: The results offer an important addition to the literature providing the views of both hospice staff and non-European patients and their families regarding challenges to the access of hospice services. This information can be used for future planning to enable hospice to both provide high quality evidence based palliative care services for patients and families and provide consultative services to primary health care providers in the community.