The Friday Five – National Healthcare Decisions Day
Follow and join the conversation with #NHDD, #advancecare and #AdvanceCarePlanning
Ninety percent of people have heard of a living will but only 29% of people have them. Advance directives are something we all should take the time to have in place for our own good and for our loved ones. National Healthcare Decisions Day (@NHDD) was begun in 2006 as a way to draw more attention to end of life measures and the resources and mechanisms that are already in place in all states to help people with this matter. The date of NHDD, April 16th, the day after tax day, was purposely chosen as inspired by Ben Franklin’s famous adage, “Nothing in life is certain but death and taxes.” NHDD has gained momentum over the past few years and for 2017, it will be a week long event, April 16-22. This week’s Friday Five gathers some motivation and tips to help you get started with your own planning and documentation.
Nathan Kottkamp, Chairman of NHDD, On the Background and Importance of NHDD
Resources to Get You Started
The Advance Care Planning page of the National Healthcare Decisions Day website offers a bounty of resources to help you wherever you are in the process of orchestrating you end-of-life care. Additionally, another good place to start is BeginTheConversation.org. Both provide a variety of resources to help make, discuss and document your future healthcare wishes and decisions. Don’t ignore the elephant in the room. Begin the conversation and get started today.
Stories from The Conversation Project
No matter how many guides and resources are out there and available to us, many of us are not motivated simply by easy access to the right tools. For some of us it takes connection on a more personal level. The Conversation Project (@convoproject) respects this point of view and in addition to offering a wealth of free tools they also provide a space for people to share their stories and read those of others. Be sure to spend some time learning from the experiences of others. It may be just the push you need to start your own conversation with loved ones.
Who’s Your Health Care Proxy?
Not sure exactly what a health care proxy is or whom you should choose? Join the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (@theihi) to learn about a new, free resource, How to Choose a Health Care Proxy & How to Be a Health Care Proxy, put out by a five-year-old grassroots initiative based at IHI called The Conversation Project. To find out more, listen a recent episode of WIHI, IHI’s free “talk show” program. In it you will hear from a panel of experts discussing this latest proxy kit and the issues surrounding choosing a health care proxy.
Many feel it’s too early to discuss #EOLcare until it’s too late. New tool to #pickaproxy https://t.co/Yj2bHqGmFD #WIHI @convoproject pic.twitter.com/WuJEUImnI7
— IHI (@TheIHI) April 6, 2017
Doctors are Ill Prepared to Discuss End of Life Measures
According to a recent national poll doctors realize the importance of end of life conversations but are unsure where to start. Medicare supports the importance of these discussions by reimbursing practices for them. STAT (@statnews) recently published an article addressing the challenges doctors face. In Learning to talk about death and dying should start early in doctors’ careers, Junaid Nabi looks at med school and flaws within the healthcare system that need to change in order to support doctors and patients.
ICYMI – Our other Friday Fives.
