Inclusive & Affirming Palliative Care for LGBTQ+ Communities

About the End of Life Equity Webinar Series

Our country is in the midst of a careful interrogation of the way personal biases and systemic injustices cause harm to minoritized and marginalized communities. There are numerous disparities in end-of-life care evident in both patient preparedness prior to death and their experience of dying. At the end of life, when individuals are often at their most vulnerable, discrimination and injustice can take several forms including poor pain management, inadequate communication between healthcare providers and families, and medical interventions without true informed consent. This has immense ramifications for marginalized communities, leading to exacerbated suffering during one of life’s most important, intimate, and universal moments.

We believe change will happen when we confront these inequities by committing to, and investing in, the resources, care, and strategies required to address them. This end of life equity webinar series will offer insight into the needs and experiences of a variety of New York communities, and strategies to advocate and support these communities in planning for and navigating the end of life. All are welcome to attend, and end-of-life professionals are encouraged to register.

This Webinar

The LGBTQ+ community is a marginalized population that has been subjected to longstanding prejudice, discrimination, and oppression. As a result, this community has experienced inequities in healthcare including palliative, hospice, and end-of-life care. In 2011, the National Academy of Medicine underscored the need to address these healthcare disparities resulting in a strong call for action towards mitigating these gaps through the provision of inclusive and affirming care for the LGBTQ+ community living with serious illness and their families and caregivers.

In this session, we will be going over some hard facts on healthcare disparities impacting this population as well as discussing guiding principles in shaping the cultural understanding of this community. We will conclude by sharing specific inclusive and affirming strategies in the provision of high quality palliative care for this community.

Learning Objectives:

• To describe the epidemiologic landscape and healthcare disparities impacting the LGBTQ+ community
• To discuss guiding principles in shaping the lens of cultural understanding for this community
• To provide specific inclusive and affirming palliative care strategies in the care of the LGBTQ+ community living with serious illness

Continuing Education

End of Life Choices New York, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers (#SW-0464). Attending the webinar counts as 1.5 contact hours.

The webinar series will also be of value to other professionals, and certificates of completion will be available for any attendee who needs, or would benefit from, this documentation.

Presenter

Noelle Marie Javier, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine in New York City. She is a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine Class of 2002. She finished her residency in Internal Medicine at both Long Island College Hospital, Brooklyn, New York and Jersey City Medical Center, Jersey City, New Jersey. She completed her two-year post-graduate fellowship training in both Geriatric Medicine and Hospice and Palliative Medicine at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor in 2009. She then joined the faculty at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island before being recruited by the Mount Sinai Health System. In her current capacity as a clinician, educator, and scholar at Mount Sinai, much of her time is spent conducting inpatient consultative service for both subspecialties as well as assistance with the hospital medicine teams. Apart from her clinical duties, she has had opportunities to conduct research, publish, and present at local, regional, national, and international conferences such as the GLMA Annual Conference, American Geriatrics Society (AGS), the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM), and the International Congress in Palliative Care (ICPC). Her areas of scholarly interest include wound care, pain management, medical education, palliative care in the nursing home, rehabilitation in palliative care, pediatric palliative care, and inclusive and affirming geriatric and palliative care for the LGBTQ population.

Webinar Series Supporter

This webinar series is made possible through a grant from the Foley Hoag Foundation. The Foley Hoag Foundation's mission is to support programs addressing inequality in its various forms, including racial, ethnic, gender, and wealth disparities. Learn more here.

Continuing Education Supporter

Continuing education credits for licensed New York social workers are available for this webinar through support from ELDR. ELDR is on a mission to empower and equip people to conclude life smoothly and be remembered well. When you plan in advance of a health crisis, challenging events go more smoothly later, and your life becomes powerfully informed by the reality of its impermanence now. You invest care and intention in yourself and those you love for generations to come. ELDRs help you feel the peace and confidence that come from completing your comprehensive plan. Learn more here.