Needed: Culturally Attuned Death Doulas

Bad deaths disproportionally affect our BIPOC neighbors. Let’s change that.

Culturally attuned death doulas work hard to understand cultures other than their own. Dr. Ramona Rhodes is an internal medicine physician at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She specializes in racial and ethnic disparities in older adults’ medical care and told Next Avenue that Black Americans have specific differences compared to White Americans experiencing end-of-life.

“Members of underrepresented groups have been found to opt for more aggressive treatments at the end of life, [are] less likely to participate in advance care planning and [are] less likely to enroll in hospice at the end of life,” Dr. Rhodes said.

Understanding that is a great first step. Once we understand the situation, death doulas and everyone who works with the dying do a better job serving everyone who needs it.

Marginalized At End-of-Life

Communities that normalize conversations around death and dying have more people making advance directives. Those with advance directives are more likely to die at home with mor…