June 26, 2017
Researchers look to tikanga for good death
New Zealand's leading palliative care researcher wants to know what Maori consider a good death and how to achieve it.
Dr Tess Moeke-Maxwell of the University of Auckland’s School of Nursing is leading Pae Herenga, a three-year Health Research Council-funded investigation of Maori whanau end-of-life cultural care customs.
Her team will talk to Maori rongoa and spiritual practitioners, Maori palliative care providers and whanau including carers and members with a life limiting illness.
About three quarters of people die an expected death from an existing chronic condition and would benefit from palliative care, but Maori are less likely to die in a hospice than Pakeha.
Dr Moeke-Maxwell says New Zealand palliative care services are informed by a Western understanding of what a good death is, which does not always reflect diverse Maori perspectives.
The study will investigate the traditional end-of-life Maori care customs that whanau draw on to strengthen their end-of-life caregiving activities and support palliative care services.
It will identify the barriers and facilitators that Maori participants experience to using these care customs within different care settings of the home, hospice, hospital and aged residential care facilities.
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