| Patients with
advanced cancer usually have family and friends as well as social
and financial responsibilities. Advanced cancer often has
devastating effects on these relationships. The social
difficulties most commonly encountered are problems with
interpersonal relationships, family problems, self-care problems,
and the need for financial or legal assistance. Hence, physical
symptoms not responding to appropriate treatment should raise the
possibility of unrecognised social difficulties.
The establishment of palliative care services in countries with
different cultures has required some modifications to make the
services culturally appropriate to local tradition and custom.
Cultural variation in attitudes to illness and death have long
been known to have an enormous bearing on the degree of suffering
associated with a terminal illness. The management of cultural
issues in palliative care requires that firstly the patient's
individual cultural and possibly religious background is
understood and respected. Palliative medicine must be conducted in
a culturally appropriate and sensitive manner
The most common situation is failure in
communication. One approach is confrontational and regards open
communication as absolutely essential. The other is to do the best
one can whilst the family maintain the patient in a cultural
cocoon. However, it is better for a palliative care service to be
flexible and respect difference in attitude than to be
confrontational.
If you have questions related to this article you may e-mail me
at doctor@soontongkiong.com quoting the contents of the article.
About the author
DR SOON is a medical practitioner. He holds four degrees. MBBS
(University of Malaya), MBA (University of East Asia), LLB (Hons)
(University of Wolverhampton), Master of Medicine (Edith Cowan
University
:
Dr SOON is the owner of AskMyVisitor.com and MyScriptDoctor.com
where you can find the most up-to-date advice and information
on
many medical, health and lifestyle topics. |
