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Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2718
igaa057.2718
Abstracts
Session 7045 (Symposium)
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
Institutional and Cultural Barriers to ACP: Staff Perspectives
Gutman Gloria 1 de Vries Brian 2 Kwan Helen 3 Jang Katrina 3 Soheilipour Shimae 1 1 
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
2 
San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, United States
3 
Gerontology Research Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”754 754
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
This study explored staff knowledge and engagement in assisting residents/families with ACP. Focus groups were conducted at two long-term care homes, one Exclusively Chinese (EC; n = 25); one Multi-Ethnic (ME; n = 41). In each, separate focus groups were held with registered staff, care aides, and support staff who also completed brief surveys providing socio-demographic data and information about their training and experience with ACP. Perceived barriers to engagement in ACP included limited knowledge and inadequate training in facilitating ACP, cognitive impairment of residents, language barriers, lack of openness to discussing ACP, family expectations and misinformation. EC staff also considered cultural and religious beliefs as one of the main barriers to engaging in ACP both for residents and families; staff at ME focused more on timing and the role of family. Support staff and care aides did not perceive ACP as within their scope of practice, deferring to nurses.