ABSTRACT
The public health approach to palliative care, exemplified through the Compassionate Communities and Compassionate Cities movements, aims to support the natural processes of death, dying, and bereavement within the community. This is to some extent a reaction against the medicalisation and professionalisation of death and dying. This chapter explores, through the findings of one research project, how one African-Caribbean community manages end of life within its own resources, based on its unique social circumstances and historical experiences. Meaningful engagement and effective partnership between communities and palliative care services require not simply knowledge about cultural practices but also understanding of the historical, political, and socio-economic background to them.
