Research summary
Studies show that most people prefer to die at home—yet more than 85 per cent of Canadians die in hospitals. Many of these hospital admissions could be prevented if patients and their caregivers had equitable access to community palliative care. As Canada Research Chair in Palliative Approaches to Care in Aging and Community Health, Dr. Kelli Stajduhar aims to improve access to, and quality of, home and community-based palliative approaches.
She and her research team are studying three major issues: formal (paid) and informal (unpaid) caregiving, palliative approaches to care for vulnerable populations, and home- and community-based care. They aim to address inequities in vulnerable groups, with a particular focus on gendered dimensions of care, and their research is framed by social justice and health equity theories. Their findings will help to guide the design, implementation and evaluation of community-based interventions while improving clinical practice and informing health and social policies.