Your Health, Your Values: Honoring Wishes for Care

High-quality end of life care should be available to all individuals in a timely manner, and in alignment with their values, wishes, and goals. Unfortunately, the reality of end of life care in the United States is quite different, with the healthcare system often failing to meet the needs of certain communities. One particular community, immigrant families, encounter particular disparities in quality of, and access to, end of life care. As the current healthcare system in the United States often frames dying from a Euro/Western-centric perspective, this may not reflect what an immigrant family may need in the areas of communication, decision making, comfort, community, identity, and grief. When these experiences and values are at odds, this poses conflict for the patient, their family, and the healthcare team at a time of great vulnerability. Therefore, it is imperative to address this continued inequity through access to relevant end of life resources and culturally congruent end of life care. In response, we created a program specifically for immigrant families funded by the National Library of Medicine. Through this funding, we held a series of online workshops in collaboration with libraries throughout New York. This recording was also created. The goal of this program was to provide much-needed support and information to adult children of immigrants, who face the unique challenge of helping their aging parents navigate a complicated medical system. The webinars provided an overview of the American medical system (including palliative care, hospice, and advance directives) and information on how immigrant children can support their parents as they navigate this landscape and articulate their values and wishes about end of life based on their culture, traditions, and experiences. Program attendees learned about treatment options and gain actionable skills to approach these difficult conversations and moments.