Exploring States of Panacea and Perfidy of Family and Community Volunteerism in Palliative Care Giving in Kanye CHBC Program, Botswana

AIM: The study aims to explore the attitudes and perceptions of family and community palliative care givers pertaining to volunteerism. OBJECTIVE: The main objective is to involve palliative caregivers and their supervisors in assessing their contribution to care and evaluate their state of volunteerism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study attracted qualitative design and involved 82 palliative caregivers in 10 focus group discussions; one-to-one interviews with the nurses supervising them. Two slightly different interview guides were used as research instruments. RESULTS: Findings indicate that palliative care giving volunteerism is motivated and sustained by: (1) Principles of love emanating from blood and kinship relations; (2) Patriotism and community responsibility over one another; (3) Adherence and respect of their culture and government call. Volunteerism was also found challenged by: (1) Predominance of the elderly and lowly educated women; (2) Poverty and heavy caseload; (3) Being shunned by the youth; (4) And lack of morale, recognition and motivation. RECOMMENDATIONS: The study recommends: (1) Socializing boys early enough in life into care giving; (2) Offering incentives to the caregivers; (3) Use of public forums to persuade men to accept helping women in carrying out care giving duties; (4) And enlisting support of all leaders to advocate for men’s involvement in care giving.