This week is National Advance Care Planning Week (17 – 23 March), providing an opportunity to consider what would matter most to you at end-of-life. Palliative Care NSW advocates for high quality person-centred palliative care for everyone, including the physical, emotional, social, cultural and spiritual needs of the person, their family and carers.
Dr Minah Gaviola, a registered nurse and Lecturer at the University of Newcastle, has conducted research into advance care planning (ACP) among culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) older people in residential aged care. Her research highlights the barriers that may affect ACP engagement among older people from CALD backgrounds, as well as the need to address a lack of clear guidelines and evidence on a culturally sensitive ACP in residential aged care settings.
Older people in residential aged care facilities can often have high care needs and be living with non-curable chronic illnesses that may impact their decision-making capacity. ACP is key to ensuring that their wishes are maintained throughout their care, including their cultural and spiritual preferences. However, Dr Gaviola’s research suggests that it can be difficult to engage some cultures in ACP. For example, older people from some Asian cultures may prefer to play a passive role in decision making and rely on family or doctors to make decisions regarding their care. Talking about death could also be considered a taboo in some cultures, and so discussing plans for end-of-life can be difficult.
Dr Gaviola’s team conducted a pilot study which explored ACP documentation related to the cultural needs of older residents of Chinese ethnicity from two residential aged care facilities in NSW. While most residents had an ACP completed, there was limited documentation of culture specific information that should be considered in care provision. The inclusion of these cultural preferences for care are crucial in the context of holistic and person-centred care.
Dr Gaviola will be presenting on Advancing culturally appropriate palliative care for older people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in residential aged care at the next Member Circle for PCNSW’s CALD Communities & Palliative Care Professional Network, on the 6th of May at 12:30 – 1:30pm.
To register for the Member Circle, members of PCNSW can join the Network HERE.
This article was first published on CareSearch by Dr Minah Gaviola. To read more about Dr Gaviola’s research, click HERE.
Advance Care Planning Australia has developed resources in a variety of languages, which you can find HERE.
PCNSW also hosts a number of resources for culturally and linguistically diverse communities, which you can find HERE.