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Building Understanding: Exploring End-of-Life Care with the Latinx Community
Dwight Wilson, Executive Director
We have long known that important end-of-life discussions are difficult for most people and don’t always happen. We also know that attitudes and concerns toward death and dying differ across cultures.
To learn more about these cultural differences in the Latinx community, in 2022 Celia’s House applied for and received a grant from the Oregon Health and Science University’s Knight Cancer Institute to conduct interviews with Latinx cancer patients or their family members. The interviews aimed to understand the barriers they face in accessing palliative and end-of-life care. With help from OHSU faculty and nursing students, interviews were conducted in Spanish.
We found that all interviewees were interested in learning more about end-of-life care but had no idea how to access resources.
This year, we received a second grant to explore whether Spanish-speaking people would attend an education session offered in various settings and locations throughout Jackson County and to determine if they found the information useful.
Sessions held in a church or library rather than a clinical setting were well attended. Participants were willing to share personal stories about their experiences with end-of-life care. They welcomed information on advanced directives and education about how to access palliative and hospice care. Like all communities, there were varying perceptions about hospice and how one supports individuals during the end of life. We learned that they were interested in normalizing their dying experiences and wanted information about care and support available to families.
We appreciate the opportunity to participate in these discussions. Looking ahead, we will explore the feasibility of applying for a Tier III Knight Cancer Institute grant that would support a program of education for the Latinx community. This fall, our planning will include analyzing the feasibility of such a project and the most effective ways to provide these services.
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