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(End of) Life spaces: an ethnographic study in Brazilian and French homes and medical-social institutions

Espacios de (término de) vida: estudio etnográfico en domicilios y establecimientos médico-sociales brasileños y franceses

Abstract

Objective:

To analyze the constitution of homes and medical-social establishments as possible spaces for the end of life in Brazilian and French scenarios.

Method:

An ethnographic study in homes and medical-social establishments carried out in Porto Alegre and Grenoble, between October 2014 and October 2016. Participants were six people with end-of-life cancer and four family caregivers. Data was submitted to cultural analysis.

Results:

We showed how the (re)configurations of the home space and the medical-social establishments occur to receive people at end-of-life stage by two categories: "They don’t know where I live": the home as a space for the end of life and "They are good here, but in another way": care in medical-social settings.

Conclusions:

The (re)definition of the space where we die takes place based on the culture, besides the social and economic conditions of the families to receive the person at the end of life. In both spaces, home and medical-social establishments, we found that sickness and the end of life are still cross-permeated and signified according to the knowledge of health, in such a way that it continues to medicalize death and the dying process, even outside the hospital.

Keywords:
Anthropology, cultural; Nursing; Culture; Hospice care; Homebound persons; Homes for the aged

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Escola de Enfermagem Rua São Manoel, 963 -Campus da Saúde , 90.620-110 - Porto Alegre - RS - Brasil, Fone: (55 51) 3308-5242 / Fax: (55 51) 3308-5436 - Porto Alegre - RS - Brazil
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