Disparities In Palliative Care

There is a large difference in the quality of care between minorities and whites. As time progresses, this becomes an issue because the number of minorities are increasing and soon that number will double the population of whites. Disparities in palliative care for minorities is limited and lacks true quality. Minorities have a harder time receiving quality palliative care because of lack of access to medication and communication with doctors. African Americans and other minorities are more likely to die in the hospital from illnesses than whites. Some factors that may contribute to the lack of care for minorities are cultural and religious beliefs, geographic locations, and preferences for treatment (Johnson 2003). Although, these may be factors that contribute to the reason it is not exact. Access to care and research for minorities who suffer from advanced illnesses, palliative care, is limited; the availability of high quality care is not equivalent to those of non-minority races.

The research that has been done is very limited and narrow and lacks data on older African Americans. In the future, additional research on African American disparities in palliative care is imperative to find the central problem and establish concepts to help minorities to receive better quality care when suffering from advanced illnesses. I do agree that there is a lack of care for African Americans who suffer from severe illnesses because the mortality rate for African Americans’ are higher than Whites, although whites may have more diagnoses. There is a great need for better palliative care in order to eliminate health disparities for African