LIGHT: A Church-Based Curriculum for Training African American Lay Health Workers to Support Advance Care Planning and End-of-Life Decision-Making.

African Americans with life-limiting illnesses experience significant health inequities. Lay health workers (LHWs) may help overcome existing challenges of communicating with African Americans about advance care planning (ACP) and end-of-life decision-making. Church-based LHWs have some advantages over other LHWs but no curriculum exists to fully prepare them.

Engaging the African American Church to Improve Communication About Palliative Care and Hospice: Lessons From a Multilevel Approach.

Background: As the spiritual family for many African Americans, the church presents an opportunity to improve communication about palliative care and hospice (PCH). However, sustainable change in church-based, practices related to PCH requires a compreshensive, multilevel approach.

Objectives: Our primary goal was to encourage churches to embrace palliative care and hospice as acceptable alternatives for end-of-life care by creating venues to improve communications about PCH.