Key Topics on End-of-Life Care for African Americans

An intellectual discourse derived from The Last Miles of the Way Home 2004 National Conference to Improve End-of-Life Care for African Americans

ABSTRACT: Family and Psycho-Social Dimensions of Death and Dying in African Americans   [Print Version]

Joseph Dancy, Jr., PhD, MDiv, ThM
Ethelyn R. Strong School of Social Work
Norfolk State University
Norfolk, VA

and

Willie D. Davis, PhD
All Around the African World Museum and Resource Center
Lansing, MI

African Americans have been shaped by a unique cultural and historical experience in America. That uniqueness also is reflected in the way African Americans confront and cope with a universal reality—death. Death is an inevitable part of the life experience that all families must face. African Americans’ social and psychological response to death is resultant from several factors, among which are the special oppression they experienced through slavery and subsequent racial discrimination as well as the imprint of their African legacy. Religious and spiritual influences, too, play a central role in shaping the African American family’s response to the changes and challenges that death may bring. It has been through the reservoirs of strength and adaptation garnered from religious, spiritual and cultural life that the African Americans have successfully confronted and coped with the social and psychological challenges and changes that death presents.

In Collaboration With:
Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life
Initiative to Improve Palliative Care for African Americans (IIPCA)