Health Equity in Palliative Care

Dear Colleagues,

While health equity has become a priority for public health agencies, health disparities remain. Many public health agencies have an increased focus on increasing awareness of how social determinants of health, systemic racism, biases, and other social factors have a multifaceted impact on minoritized patients’ well-being, yet minoritized patients continue to receive inequitable care.

Palliative care, focusing on providing relief from pain and other symptoms of a serious illness and on improving quality of life, is not immune from health disparities. There are notable disparities in the accessing of and engagement with palliative care in minoritized populations. Moreover, when it comes to the delivery of holistic palliative care, there is increasing evidence of systematic and structural disparities contributing to negative outcomes for minorities. Therefore, it is critical to identify methods with which to provide equitable care and identify areas where progress can be made.

This Special Issue aims to publish original studies with which to increase awareness of health inequity and palliative care and to provide resources for the interdisciplinary healthcare workforce to mitigate health inequity. Many areas of research concerning health inequity and palliative care are in their infancy, so we will be accepting methods papers, qualitative research, mixed methods, reviews, and experimental studies.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Lynn F. Reinke
Guest Editor

Dr. Katherine Doyon
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• hospice
• palliative care
• serious illness
• health equity