Are there any policies that are designed to ensure that hospices provide services accessible to all major groups within a community?
Yes. According the the HAO Policies and Procedures manual, The Bill of Rights in the Long Term Care Act (refer to the “ethics” section) ensures that the individual rights of persons receiving community services are fully respected. This bill of rights governs all policies of a hospice, and therefore they must be sensitive to the needs of specific ethno-cultural and special needs groups. To be sure of this, hospices must actively work with representatives of the diverse communities they serve to ensure that their material and services are “sensitive to the needs and preferences identified by these various groups,” taking ethnic spiritual, linguistic, familial, and cultural factors into account.
