Publication Date
Summer 2025
Abstract
Chile’s health system requires the inlcusion of intercultural health for indigenous populations. This includes palliative care. Indigenous patients come from different belief backgrounds that shape their understanding of death and health practices. Indigenous patients should be given culturally relevant end of life care that respects their beliefs. Intercultural health can be difficult to implement at any point in the patient’s life. Northern Chile has a significant population of Aymara people, an indigenous group. The Aymara people have a cosmovision that is intertwined with the natural world and believes death is the spirit’s journey to the next life. In the region of Arica and Parinacota, there is one hospital that provides paliative care. The research question at hand is, how is Aymara intercultural health practiced in palliative care and how do Aymara beliefs of death influence medical decisions? This study aims to analyze and describe the realities of intercultural health for Aymara patients in paliative care at Hospital Regional de Arica with the influence of Aymara beliefs regarding medical decisiones in this context. The qualitative and exploratory study was done in Putre, a small mountain town with a large population of Aymara people, and in Arica at the regional hospital. Nine semi-structured interviews with ten people were carried out and a participation in a public lecture related to the project at the hospital. The majority of Aymara people interviewed in Putre were seniors who did not fear death and viewed it as a natural process in a human life. They also liked to participate in both occidental and Aymara health systems. In the paliative care unit of the regional hospital there is a intercultural facilitator specifically for Aymara pacients. The chief doctor interviewed has observed that Aymara patients like to have their bodies minimally altered with preferring patch medications and avoiding amputation. There are not opportunities for visits with Yatiris or Qulliris, Aymara doctors, which is the most glaring problem of intercultural healthcare within palliative care there.
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
Dennison, Phoebe, "La salud intercultural aymara en el contexto de la muerte y la unidad de cuidado paliativo en el Hospital Regional de Arica, Chile" (2025). Chile: Public Health, Traditional Medicine, and Community Empowerment. 7.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cih2/7