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The marginalisation of religion in End of Life Care: signs of microaggression?

The marginalisation of religion in End of Life Care: signs of microaggression?

Pentaris, Panagiotis ORCID: 0000-0001-5593-8555 (2018) The marginalisation of religion in End of Life Care: signs of microaggression? International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, 11 (2). pp. 116-128. ISSN 2056-4902 (doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHRH-09-2017-0053)

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Abstract

Service users very often interpret and respond to their experiences of death, dying and bereavement through a religious or spiritual lens. However, recent trends in religion and belief have influenced how professionals respond to indicators such as faith. Since the post-war years in Britain, and due to the transfer of services from church to state, as well as the change in the religious landscape, language has largely secularized. When people start addressing religion and belief again, they lack the appropriate literacy to do so; this is termed religious literacy by Dinham (2015). This paper explores how professionals in end of life care respond to service users’ religious and spiritual indicators, through the lens of religious literacy. The paper draws from an ethnographic study undertaken across hospices in England, UK. In this study healthcare professionals were observed for one calendar year. Results show that lack of religious literacy on the part of healthcare professionals may lead to subtle and unintentional microaggression. Three types of indications of microinvalidation have been noted: verbal, non-verbal and environmental.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: religion, religious microaggression, religious microinvalidation, end of life care, hospice
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group: Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences
Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > School of Human Sciences (HUM)
Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > Health & Society Research Group
Last Modified: 23 Apr 2020 12:26
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/18306

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