Maya Ta Maya Ho (Love is Love): A Qualitative Study on LGBTQI+ Experiences in Hospice & Palliative Care in Nepal

Abstract

Objective(s)

LGBTQI+ disparities in hospice and palliative care have been vastly underrecognized in medical practice and research. This may result in LGBTQI+ community members distrusting health care professionals, avoiding encounters due to fears of discrimination or mistreatment, and seldom disclosing their identities to health care professionals. LGBTQI+ patients often lack familial emotional and caregiver support, a central theme of hospice and palliative care – for example, older LGBTQI+ people are twice as likely as cisgender heterosexual people to live alone and four times as likely to not have children. LGBTQI+ populations are also highly intersectional; therefore, members may be further stigmatized. Blue Diamond Society is a non-governmental organization in Nepal that specializes in LGBTQI+ advocacy and patient care. Our main objective in this study was to explore Nepali LGBTQI+ patients’ experiences in hospice and palliative care.

Methods

29 interviews were conducted with patients, health care professionals, family members, and administrators involved with Blue Diamond Society (BDS), a Nepali NGO that serves Nepal's LGBTQI+ community. Questions were developed based on open-ended questioning to abstract relevant life and health history information pertaining to experiences with BDS and palliative care. These interviews were translated and transcribed verbatim. Qualitative Content analysis was conducted to identify prevalent themes.

Results

Four themes were identified: Fear of Dying without Family; Understanding Oneself and Sense of Community; Patient as Advocate; and Intersectionality and Eliminating Reductionism.

Conclusions

This study elucidated themes inherent to the experiences of LGBTQI+ Nepali people receiving palliative and hospice care, ultimately describing the unique needs of LGBTQI+ Nepali patients in palliative and hospice care settings. In doing so, this study presents an intersectional focus on palliative and hospice care, elaborating on challenges specific to a deeply marginalized community that remains underrepresented in academia. Findings from this study describe an expanded notion of “palliation” to embody “whole-person care,” that is, the palliation of social and structural pain, in addition to the more traditional conceptions of palliation as purely physical, emotional, and/or spiritual. This study also identified the importance of acknowledging and affirming the intersectional marginalization at which LGBTQI+ Nepalis live, ranging from experiences with socioeconomic status, family and communal conflict, ethnicity, race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, and environmental resource scarcity. In further understanding and improving upon intersectional LGBTQI+ cultural humility, this study provides opportunities for further research on cross-cultural LGBTQI+ patient needs in hospice and palliative care in a variety of resource settings.