The Perfidy of Stigma Experienced by the Palliative CHBC of Kanye in Botswana

BACKGROUND/AIM: To explore and assess the magnitude of stigma and its impact to palliative care giving. OBJECTIVE: To involve the palliative caregivers in exploring the impact of stigma in their care giving. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was exploratory in nature and used attracted qualitative design and interviewed 82 palliative caregivers in 10 focus groups using an interview guide as a data collection instrument, and five CHBC nurses on one-to-one in-depth interviews, still guided by an interview guide that differed only slightly with the one for the caregivers. RESULTS: The study findings revealed that stigma and discrimination was immensely perfidious due to: (1) Discrimination against caregivers by the service providers, especially at the Kanye referral hospital; (2) Refusal of youth to help the elderly caregivers; (3) Shunning of government assistance packages by caregivers and their clients; (4) Caregivers secretly taking away their clients to faraway places for assistance; (5) Caregivers and their clients turning to alternative therapies from the traditional healers; (6) Caregivers and clients having inadequate assistance. RECOMMENDATIONS: We recommend strong anti-stigma education and campaign by the government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and all the civil society bodies and campaigners.