How Equity-Oriented Is Palliative Care? 2024 Hood Fellowship recipient Professor Kelli Stajduhar

Palliative care is increasingly recognised as a human right in the context of international healthcare debates. Yet a range of social inequalities can restrict patients’ access to palliative care. The same fault lines of privilege and disadvantage defining the conditions in which we live, are equally shaping the conditions in which we die. As the Global North is confronted by demographic trends such as ageing populations and decreasing population replacement rates, addressing the inequities that hinder access to palliative care is increasingly urgent. Following global palliative care debates, in this lecture renowned scholar Kelli Stajduhar examines the pressing question: How equity-oriented is palliative care? In doing so, Stajduhar reveals the potential “blind spots” in end-of-life care provision. Stajduhar champions a social justice approach to palliative care, arguing that “we need to address the social and structural inequalities that profoundly affect how people live and how people die”. Watch professor Stajduhar’s brilliant lecture here:

https://auckland.au.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=7ff6feff-985c-421a-b7a3-b130002361ac

Dr Stajduhar is a professor in the School of Nursing and Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health at the University of Victoria in Canada. She has worked in oncology, palliative care, and gerontology for 30 years as a practicing nurse, educator, and researcher. She is lead investigator on multiple research projects including international research collaboratives on family caregiving, integration of a palliative approach to care across health sectors and studies on access to palliative and end-of-life care for people facing structural vulnerabilities.