The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation (RAHF) has officially announced nine different grants to better support innovative, early-stage interventions that address the serious illness and end of life needs of marginalized populations. Totaling up to a sum worth $500,000, these grants arrive on the scene as a part of RAHF’s collaboration with the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, with each one now set to be used for advancing nursing-driven initiatives that will improve care for diverse populations and expand access to high-quality end of life services. Another detail worth a mention here is how all these grants also happen to be a part of the Hillman Emergent Innovation: Serious Illness and End of Life program, a program which was jointly established by RAHF and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations back in 2021. Having significantly expanded the pipeline of pilot interventions which aim to promote more equitable care for the seriously ill, this year’s HSEI edition will provide the monetary support to, for instance, an organization named ADVANCED-Comfort, who is improving dementia care in the Chinese American community. You see, Chinese Americans with advanced dementia are at risk for unwanted and invasive end of life procedures due to cultural and family-based decision-making preferences. In response, ADVANCED-Comfort hopes to enhance care for the same using a culturally tailored ADVANCED-Comfort program, designed to improve access to personalized comfort care, as well as empower families to make comfort-focused care decisions through education and guided planning.
The next recipient in line would be Perinatal Palliative Care, an organization best known for supporting parents through life-limiting fetal diagnosis. In essence, the current standard of care for a life-limiting fetal condition (LLFC) is largely restricted to clinical care for mother and infant. Not just that, it also does not address the continued and complex needs of parents following the death of their child. Hence, by building on a successful pilot study of an intervention to address the holistic healthcare of these parents, Perinatal Palliative Care aims to broaden its reach to marginalized groups, including BIPOC and LGBTQ+ populations and people whose access to healthcare is limited by location or transportation challenges.
Moving on to the recipient number three, it would be an entity named Breaking Barriers, Honoring Wishes, who is advancing end of life care in marginalized communities. Under its current shape and form, advance care planning for older adults can be difficult, disjointed, and inaccessible, especially for minority populations. This, in turn, can cause futile life-saving measures, late hospice referrals, delayed comfort, caregiver strain, and inadequate grief support. Fortunately enough, Breaking Barriers’ project tries to resolve the problem with a holistic approach to end of life (EOL) conversations. It also pursues the same objective through increased planning for disadvantaged populations. The stated planning is done with the help of a hybrid clinic which, in turn, works alongside health, law, and faith ministry professionals to educate clients about options and document their preferences.
Then, there is Community-Based Serious Illness Support, a grassroots network created to help older adults, across rural counties, who lack or have limited access to palliative care. The new grant, in particular, will make it possible for this network to develop the Oregon Network for Community-Based Serious Illness Support, a network inspired by the Compassionate Communities model of care. This model basically refers to all community members having a role in supporting each other during times of illness, grief, and loss. Joining the mix here is Post-Acute Transition to Home with Supportive Care (PATHS): which is an NP-led telehealth intervention for Black & Latinx patients & families at end of life. Among the stated population, this organization is largely focused on helping people who are suffering from cancer, and at the same time, have declined further treatment and hospice. Practically speaking, the plan here is to deploy those newly-raised funds to test an adapted version of the Post-Acute Transitions from Hospital to Home with Supportive Care (PATHS), which is a nurse-led intervention designed to reduce patient and family distress, while simultaneously encouraging hospice enrollment for home-based supportive care.
