End of life caring a women’s workforce

Ed:  As you may know this month our #pallanz tweetchat in partnership with PCA is focused on Caring for the Carers.  In this article Tessa Morgan, Merryn Gott, and Lisa Williams explore the experience and care needs of women who are palliative carers.  This piece is part of an ongoing series of blog articles entitled “Gender in palliative care” .

crying girl

It doesn’t take an expert to conclude that the palliative care workforce is dominated by women. Globally, women make up the vast majority of the paid palliative care workforce. Ninety percent of the nurses and health care assistants involved with end of life care are women and there are a higher proportion of women in Palliative Medicine than in most other specialities. Over half of Palliative Medicine physicians in Australia, for example, are women. This is in addition to the vast (and ever-increasing) number of women who provide unpaid care for their dying relatives. It is hardly a stretch, then, to regard palliative care as essentially a woman’s domain. Indeed, with the rise in population of the oldest-old, the need for more people – presumably women – to provide palliative care in hospice, aged care and community settings will continue to grow.

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A woman’s world?: Palliative care from a gendered perspective

Ed: As many of you will know #pledgeforparity was the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day on the 8th of March.  But to be able to make such a pledge meaningful first we we need to understand where inequality resides.  This important work from Tessa Morgan, Merryn Gott, and Lisa Williams begins to explore how questions of gender equity relate to palliative care.  

Do we understand culture's effect on care roles?

Do we understand culture’s effect on care roles?

Dying at home is widely celebrated as the pinnacle of a ‘good death’. It is therefore unsurprising that governments internationally are framing current moves to increase the numbers of people dying at home as a ‘win-win’ situation. People get what they want at the end of their lives and the health system saves money. Result! However, is it really that straightforward? Increasingly, our research group has been thinking about the unpaid workforce we rely on to enact home dying. Who are they? How does this caring work impact upon them physically, psychologically, socially and financially? Why are they so invisible?

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