Revisiting the use of ‘place’ as an analytic tool for elucidating geographic issues central to Canadian rural palliative care

Abstract

In 2010, Castleden and colleagues published a paper in this journal using the concept of ‘place’ as an analytic tool to understand the nature of palliative care provision in a rural region in British Columbia, Canada. This publication was based upon pilot data collected for a larger research project that has since been completed. With the addition of 40 semi-structured interviews with users and providers of palliative care in four other rural communities located across Canada, we revisit Castleden and colleagues’ (2010) original framework. Applying the concept of place to the full dataset confirmed the previously published findings, but also revealed two new place-based dimensions related to experiences of rural palliative care in Canada: (1) borders and boundaries; and (2) ‘making’ place for palliative care progress. These new findings offer a refined understanding of the complex interconnections between various dimensions of place and palliative care in rural Canada.