Whose Business is Dying? Death, the Home and Palliative Care

John Rosenberg

doi:10.5130/csr.v17i1.1971

Cultural Studies Review 17.1 March 2011 The Death Scene: Perspectives on Mortality

PDF

Published: Mar 9, 2011

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5130/csr.v17i1.1971

Keywords:

Palliative care, public health, social models, home care

John Rosenberg

Calvary Centre for Palliative Care Research

Abstract

The process of dying at home brings the nexus between the paternalism of conventional palliative care and a social understanding of end of life care into sharp focus. Away from institutional places of care, issues of ownership, compliance and communal responsibility are heightened. At this interface, palliative care services are confronted with the irony of relinquishing their 'ownership' of dying whilst leading communities to reclaim their principal role in the business of dying. This benign – but enduring – paternalism remains a barrier to a paradigmatic shift towards a more complete understanding of the business of dying. Whilst nascent attempts to promote community engagement in end of life issues are evident in the interface between palliative care and public health, dying remains, for the most part, the remit of health care services. In this article, I contend that the business of dying is incompletely attended. This lack of attention will be partially redressed here by considering the home as a fitting death scene.

Issue

Vol 17 No 1 (2011): The Death Scene: Perspectives on Mortality

Section

The Death Scene (Peer Reviewed)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

a) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed undera Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share and adapt the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

b) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

c) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Open Access Citation Advantage Service). Where authors include such a work in an institutional repository or on their website (ie. a copy of a work which has been published in a UTS ePRESS journal, or a pre-print or post-print version of that work), we request that they include a statement that acknowledges the UTS ePRESS publication including the name of the journal, the volume number and a web-link to the journal item.

d) Authors should be aware that the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License permits readers to share (copy and redistribute the work in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the work) for any purpose, even commercially, provided they also give appropriate credit to the work, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. They may do these things in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests you or your publisher endorses their use.

Author Biography

John Rosenberg, Calvary Centre for Palliative Care Research

John Rosenberg is a registered nurse who has worked in community palliative care and as an educator and researcher in the care of people at the end of life. His doctoral study examined the integration of health promotion principles and practice in palliative care organisations.

Article Sidebar

Main Article Content

Abstract

Article Details

John Rosenberg, Calvary Centre for Palliative Care Research