Jung Kwak
Discipline: Social Worker
Funding awarded to: The University of Texas at Austin
Culture, Faith and Trust in Dementia Surrogate Decision-Making
My primary project and leadership development objectives are to: (1) Conduct a prospective study of culturally diverse dementia family caregivers to examine the roles culture, faith, and cultural competency of healthcare teams in surrogate decision-making about goals of care and palliative care; (2) Organize a research consensus conference to assess the state of research at the intersection of dementia and palliative care, with a special emphasis on the roles of culture and faith, and to advance an actionable, forward-looking palliative care research agenda; and (3) Cultivate new relationships with national and international palliative care leaders, and further develop my leadership within the palliative care community.
“The values associated with an individual’s culture, and spiritual and or religious faith have a profound influence on how we cope with life-threatening illnesses, communicate our needs, and make decisions about care at the end of life. My mission is to become a leader in conducting practice- and policy-relevant research and outreach aimed at creating a culture of palliative care intentionally designed to be inclusive, equitable and person-centered.”