Configurations of care at the end of life: the case of palliative care in Brazil

Abstract

The socio-anthropological study of palliative care in Brazil has been consolidated over the last two decades, under the umbrella of the sociology of health, death, and dying. Some approaches adopt a macro perspective, aiming to explain the different contours taken by palliative care in each country or even to propose a particular model, while others look at palliative practice at a micro level, in the interactions between individuals at the hospital or at home. This paper analyzes the mechanisms involved in the formation of configurations of care at the end of life, taking palliative care in Brazil as a case. The methodology is qualitative and exploratory in nature, based on an analysis of review papers on the subject, institutional documents, and websites of healthcare organizations. The aim is to establish a range of operational concepts with the purpose of investigating paths of institutionalization and legitimization of health-illness practices at a national and international level. Thus, the aim is to outline a conceptual apparatus useful for explaining the relationships between discursive, practical, and institutional instances in the circumscribed field of palliative care supply models and, possibly, in healthcare systems in general.