Social issues in contemporary native America: reflections from Turtle Island

The purpose of this study was to explore how the death and dying-related beliefs of caregivers influence their actual caregiving behavior, and to explore factors that may prevent them from translating these beliefs into functional behavior. Using a biopsychosocial-spiritual- environmental framework, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with three primary caregivers of patients diagnosed with terminal illness. Caregiving behavior was found to be associated with the biopsychosocial-spiritual-environmental beliefs of the caregivers. These beliefs could have been influenced by the caregivers' past experiences with death and dying. Financial difficulty might also be a main obstacle hindering caregivers from providing the kind of care they believed was best for the patients.