Can discussing advance directives with family actually be fulfilling? Brad Stuart M.D., Chief Medical Officer for Sutter Care at Home may be speaking from the heart about the importance of goals of care discussions, but as a leader of the Advanced Illness Management program, there is some pretty incredible research showing the benefits of advance care planning for healthcare truly delivered around the wishes of each individual patient.
We're thrilled that today is the big day! The fifth annual National Healthcare Decisions Day. Below we've included some tips about a super easy way to share NHDD and the importance of advance care planning with a simple Facebook update.
Below is a contribution from Randi Siegel, NHDD State Liaison in Pennsylvania.
Nathan Kottkamp recently blogged here about the power of stories to motivate people to do advance care planning. The Descendants, an award-winning film starring George Clooney, is one story that we can all use as a teaching tool.
First of all, just mentioning George Clooney may help get folks’ attention. So, too, may the publicity around this movie (including Golden Globes for best picture, best actor Clooney, and an Oscar for best adapted screenplay).
The film sets up Clooney as a middle-aged husband whose vital, healthy wife has just been seriously injured in a tragic boat racing accident. She now lies in a coma on life support. At her bedside, Clooney’s character, Matt King, pleads with his wife to awaken from her coma. After three weeks of waiting, doctors tell the anguished King that she will never wake again.
Last winter, as I celebrated the holidays with family, I was grateful for something a bit unusual... a family that is familiar with my wishes regarding end-of-life care.
I recently completed the Five Wishes document, which gives us each an opportunity to think about and write down what we want if we are in a position where we face a life-limiting illness or injury and cannot speak for ourselves. The other important factor is to then take it a step further and talk about what we want with our loved ones.
I'm teaching a course about end-of-life care, and insisted that all of the faculty complete the forms before we asked others to do it.
Insiting people satrted with themselves meant I had to finally bite the bullet and think about this myself.
You're invited!
Are you still not sure what you're going to do for National Healthcare Decisions Day? As an individual, there's something for everyone, whether you complete your own advance directive, update your advance directive, make sure your family knows what's on your advance directive, start advance care planning conversations with family or friends and now you can donate a spot on your blog. Something as simple as a tweet and facebook post can help raise awareness so hopefully you'll consider participating in the blog rally. Last April we hosted the first NHDD Blog Rally, inspired by the Engage With Grace initiative every Thanksgiving. We are just one week away from National Healthcare Decisions Day and are hosting a second annual Blog Rally for NHDD. All are welcome to participate to help raise awareness about the importance of advance care planning.
NHDD team