Fall Forum: Multicultural bereavement

Grief and pain are common to all cultures, but people of various local ethnicities approach these feelings quite differently, according to Dr. Ken Barnes, who will speak at this year’s Mission Hospice Fall Forum on “Palliative and End-of-Life Care in Multicultural Communities.”

Dr. Barnes, medical director at Mission Hospice, has been a primary care physician in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He will use cases culled from his experience to demonstrate how culture affects healing and dying.

“We must realize our view of reality is not the only view of reality,” he said. His talk will include an overview of United States, California and Bay Area populations and will focus on ethnic approaches in Latino, African-American and Asian (particularly Chinese) cultures. He noted that it’s especially important for health care professionals not only to know about the cultural differences, but to understand and respond to them.

There’s a difference between cultural competence and cultural humility,” he said. “Cultural competence implies a fixed body of knowledge which is knowable.  Cultural humility is more of a process – a lifelong process of self-examination that allows you to be humble.”

The Fall Forum is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 24, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 1500 Easton Drive, Burlingame, and is open to the public. A sandwich and salad bar buffet will be served between 11:30 and noon, followed by Dr. Barnes’ presentation. Information about tickets and continuing education credit is available on the Mission Hospice Web site at www.missionhospice.org or by calling 650 554-1000.

The event is co-sponsored by the Mission Hospice Auxiliary and is part of Mission Hospice’s mission to provide information and education about end-of-life issues to the San Mateo County community.