Poster Presentation Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2024

How does the health system support advance care planning with culturally and linguistically diverse communities? A document analysis   (#280)

Upma Chitkara 1 , Reema Prof Harrison 1 , Ramya Dr Walson 1 , Ashfaq Dr Chauhan 1 , Ursula Dr Sansom-Daly 2 3 4
  1. Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, NEW SOUTH WALES, Australia
  2. Behavioral Sciences Unit , Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children's Hospital , Sydney, New South Wales , Australia
  3. School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Medicine and Health , Randwick Clinical Campus, Discipline of Paediatrics , University of New South Wales , Sydney, New South Wales , Australia
  4. Sydney Youth Cancer Service, Prince of Wales Hospital, Nelune Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Randwick, Sydney , New South Wales , Australia

Aim:

Advance Care Planning (ACP) occurs less frequently with people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds exposing them to care that does not align with their preferences, wishes and needs at the end of their life. Resources designed to facilitate ACP are plentiful but disparately distributed in the Australian healthcare system. This study aimed to provide an evidence synthesis to determine the availability and scope of resources that aim to facilitate ACP among people from CALD backgrounds.

Methods:

Altheide’s document analysis approach was used to systematically search and select eligible resources (published between January 2013 and June 2023, publicly available through websites of government health departments and registered non-government organisations and focused on facilitating ACP with people from CALD backgrounds). A narrative synthesis was conducted using the International Association for Public Participation’s consumer engagement framework to report on the characteristics and scope of resources.

Results:

A total of 31 documents were identified; 22 documents (71%) originating from federal government sources and 18 (58%) at the state level. Twenty-two (71%) documents were targeted to be used by people from CALD backgrounds, eight (25%) by healthcare staff and only one that was developed to be used by both parties. Sixteen documents were available in a language other than English, covering 90 community languages. Five documents were available in easy-to-read English versions. Twelve documents provided guidance to CALD communities on leading conversations with healthcare staff about ACP, focusing on practical tips to go through the process (think, talk, write, share) and /or providing specific communication examples.

 

Conclusions:

There is plethora of resources available to facilitate ACP among CALD communities, although few provide resources to facilitate staff, patients and families to collaborate together. Evidence of the barriers to engaging with these resources towards greater ACP uptake would be beneficial.