Cultural Diversity and Palliative Care

Palliative care is standard of care for all patients with serious illness, including culturally diverse patients who often experience racial and ethnic health disparities. Healthcare disparities lead to patients receiving care at more advanced stages of illnesses, getting more fragmented care, and often resulting in increased morbidity and mortality. This chapter focuses on cultural diversity in regard to patient values, access to care, and receipt of care, and it discusses next steps in how to mitigate cultural differences to provide equitable care to all patients. Though cultural diversity can be defined in many ways and is often self-determined, this chapter focuses on health inequalities within the United States and for Black and Hispanic minority patients, and it touches on health disparities among Asian minority patients.