Nathan Adelson Hospice honored for Hispanic outreach efforts

Nathan Adelson Hospice knows the needs of the Hispanic community when it comes to end-of-life services.

That’s because the non-profit center has invested in reaching out to the growing population that as of 2011 accounted for 27.1 percent of Nevada’s residents and 29.7 percent of Clark County’s population the same year.

Those efforts on Tuesday earned the center a national honor.

“It’s just a great recognition for the hospice (center), for Las Vegas and the state of Nevada,” said Karen Rubel, vice president for development at Nathan Adelson Hospice, on Swenson Street near Flamingo Road.

The center is one of eight in the country recognized by the American Hospital Association, and one of five that will be awarded a Citation of Honor during a ceremony in San Diego on July 26.

The Las Vegas center was touted for its community outreach to the growing Hispanic community and ensuring that hospice services are accessible throughout the community.

In 2011, the center hired Nora Luna to lead its efforts in reaching out to the Hispanic community and this year it established a Latino Advisory Board, Rubel said. The center serves about 3,000 patients a year and about 10 percent of them are Hispanic. Luna was hired to “address their specific needs at the end of life and understand the culture and how they perceive end of life,” Rubel said.

One of the main differences in their needs is the language, Luna said. “We want to make sure we bring someone who can talk to them in Spanish,” she said.

Some of them are Catholic so they make requests for a priest, she said. Especially with pediatric patients, they want the child to be baptized right away.

Not many doctors refer Hispanic patients to hospice services because they think they wouldn’t utilize those services. “That’s not the case if they know what (a hospice) is,” Luna said.

Contact Yesenia Amaro at yamaro@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.