Exploring Motivational Interviewing to Engage Latinos in Advance Care Planning: A Community-Based Social Work Intervention:

Advance care planning (ACP) does not readily occur in medical settings and often gets missed. Older Latinos need ACP information to encourage advance directive (AD) completion indicating preferences for end-of-life (EOL) care.Objective:To explore the experiences with counseling using motivational interviewing (MI) techniques and social workers to encourage ACP communication among older Latinos with advance chronic diseases. This study describes stages of readiness to plan for EOL care.Design:We conducted a qualitative study with older Latinos who participated in a community-based intervention in Southern New Mexico.Methods:Participants in the intervention were selected because they received ACP education plus counseling involving MI to address resistance to ACP. Motivational interviewing counseling involved the following: (1) engaging in structured dialogue about ACP, (2) using and completing AD documentation, (3) encouraging ACP communication with providers and families, and (4) applying AD information i...