If you’ve not heard of it before, National Health Care Decisions Day is a day I support fully. Health Care decisions are an important part of life. Thinking about and preparing for decisions in advance of needing them helps us help others when we need it.
April 16 is National Healthcare Decisions Day. The purpose of this day is for us to take time to discuss and document your healthcare wishes. Consider this a “tickle” and a little inspiration or a reminder to do it. There are many free resources, including free advance directive forms for each of the 50 states and a great short video to get you thinking and talking, on the NHDD website: www.nhdd.org
For friends in Canada, there are some great free resources: http://advancecareplanning.ca/resource/acp-day-campaign-kit/
Depending upon your state of residence, Advanced Directives may be referenced as a “durable power of attorney” or a “health care proxy”. These documents are written statements that communicate guidance or direction for future medical treatment in the event of your incapacity.
Formally, it’s up to us to decide about issues the doctors will speak with our families and loved ones about at critical times. Speaking from experience, we don’t know what we don’t know, until we know.
If you’ve been following me for any amount of time, you know I’m a believer in advanced discussions and planning! The good news is that we may change our minds and update things (even formal legal documents) at any time in our lives.
It helps to gain familiarity with some of the terms and what they mean. Here are many associated with Health Care decisions we face.
- Advance directive—A written document (form) that tells what a person wants or doesn’t want if he/she in the future can’t make his/her wishes known about medical treatment.
- Artificial nutrition and hydration—When food and water are fed to a person through a tube.
- Autopsy—An examination done on a dead body to find the cause of death.
- Comfort care—Care that helps to keep a person comfortable but doesn’t make him/her get well. Bathing, turning and keeping a person’s lips moist are types of comfort care.
- CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation)—Treatment to try to restart a person’s breathing or heartbeat. CPR may be done by pushing on the chest, by putting a tube down the throat or by other treatment.
- Durable power of attorney for health care—An advance directive that names someone to make medical decisions for a person if in the future he/she can’t make his/her own medical decisions.
- Life-sustaining treatment—Any medical treatment that is used to keep a person from dying. A breathing machine, CPR, and artificial nutrition and hydration are examples of life-sustaining treatments.
- Living will—An advance directive that tells what medical treatment a person does or doesn’t want if he/she is not able to make his/her wishes known.
- Organ and tissue donation—When a person permits his/her organs (such as the eyes or kidneys) and other parts of the body (such as the skin) to be removed after death to be transplanted for use by another person or to be used for experimental purposes.
- Persistent vegetative state—When a person is unconscious with no hope of regaining consciousness even with medical treatment. The body may move and the eyes may be open, but as far as anyone can tell, the person can’t think or respond.
- Terminal condition—An ongoing condition caused by injury or illness that has no cure and from which doctors expect the person to die even with medical treatment. Life-sustaining treatments will only prolong the dying process if the person is suffering from a terminal condition.
I’d like to add one additional area to consider – how do you define “quality of life”? Incapacity can impact us in a variety of ways. Defining quality of life helps us embrace living when we’re here and helps us should we face a time when that changes.
Consulting businesses, organizations and families is my forte. Let’s investigate strategies to enhance your life and business planning together. Contact me via Email. Additional information is available upon request or on the website @ The Living Planner
#LifeAndBusinessIntersect #CareForPeopleCareForBusiness #StepUpStepIn