Palliative care and death in the gypsy community

Abstract

Introduction: The gipsy community is an important part in our society, which is distinguished by their own cultural elements. In the health world, the treatments, generally, do not attend to any cultural differences. The healthcare world is becoming more aware of the need to know and understand the cultural differences to conduct the most appropriate care, in our case, applying that to palliative care and death. Aim: To know and understand the attitudes, traditions, and beliefs in the gipsy community, regarding palliative care and death. Method: A bibliographical review is done to get to know the cultural characteristics of the community regarding the illness, the palliative care and the end of life. From that information, interviews are conducted in a focus group, as well as individually. Results: After the study performed, some emerging categories are obtained, from which the bibliography is compared to the results from the interviews, providing a necessary information to the healthcare professionals, so that they can offer appropriate care to that ethnicity.

Keywords

• gitano
• salud&enfermedad
• cuidados paliativos
• muerte
• duelo