I am excited to share my African-American ACP Training Program with you! This has been a tremendous labor of love and commitment for the past several years and I am grateful to do this important work.

I am also thankful for everyone who has helped me with this vision to provide a culturally sensitive and relevant process to help faith leaders educate and empower their African-American congregants on advance care planning and end-of-life care. My program, Let’s Talk About ACP, is designed to help bridge gaps in healthcare disparities by providing a simple way to talk about the oftentimes difficult topics of death and dying. 

I know it’s a hard topic to talk about, but it’s better to talk about it now while you can let someone know what your wishes would be if you were no longer able to speak for yourself in a life-threatening illness or accident. Even though Black Americans only make up around 13% of the U.S. population, they have the highest per capita illness rates of all ethnic groups in this country. Most people want to be in charge of their own lives.

Nobody wants to be a burden. If you feel that way, advance care planning may help prevent that from happening. How you want your final days to be is more likely to be your personal decision if you plan your healthcare needs in advance.

My prayer is that more families and caregivers are equipped to P.L.A.N. (an acronym I coined for Preparing for Life After Now). Regardless of ethnicity, all people are human beings first, and having dignity in dying is just as important as having dignity in living. 

Blessings to you,
Dr. Gloria