Money helps ensure a 'comfortable death'
The wealthier you are, the less likely you are to suffer pain at the end of life.A University of Michigan study to be published next month suggests that people 70 years and older with a net worth of $70,000 or higher are 30 percent less likely than poorer people to feel pain during the year before they die.
The difference persisted after researchers controlled for age, gender, ethnicity, education and diagnosis.
For pastoral caregivers, this research suggests two areas of focus:
- Greater emphasis on the "advocating" function of pastoral care (championed by Peggy Way) so that pastors work to ensure that all people, regardless of wealth, have access to pain control and other means of palliative care at the end of life.
- Continued attention to prophetic pastoral care that works for just and equitable access to health care and other types social capital that shape death and dying in America.
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Monday, July 11, 2005
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