National Healthcare Decisions Day is April 16!
National Healthcare Decisions Day exists to inspire, educate and empower the public and providers about the importance of advance care planning. Mark April 16 on your calendar as a day to share your advance care planning with your family and loved ones! (Thank you to NHDD for this list of resources—if you have others to add, please let us know at info@polst.org .)
The Conversation Project
The Conversation Project is dedicated to helping people talk about their wishes for end-of-life care. They are focused on generating conversations about healthcare wishes with family members and ensuring individuals have thought through what they want at the end of life. The Conversation Project has created a brochure that you can download, How to Choose a Health Care Proxy & How to Be a Health Care Proxy.
Go Wish Cards
Go Wish Game is a card game by Coda Alliance that is a simple way to think and talk about what's important to individuals and their family members if someone becomes seriously ill.
PREPARE
PREPARE, also referred to as PREPARE For Your Care, is an interactive website serving as a resource for families navigating medical decision making.
Additional Resources
AARP
AARP features an End-of-Life Planning resource center with perspectives on starting advance care planning discussions, facilitating discussions with adult children about end of life planning, frequently asked questions and considerations for siblings planning care for parents.
American Hospital Association
The American Hospital Association has advance care planning resources from some states hospital associations and a Put It In Writing brochure for patients and families to document their wishes.
American Bar Association Advance Care Planning Toolkit
The American Bar Association's Advance Care Planning Toolkit includes 10 Tools:
- How to Select Your Health Care Agent or Proxy
- Are Some Conditions Worse than Death?
- How Do You Weigh Odds of Survival?
- Personal Priorities and Spiritual Values Important to Your Medical Decisions
- After Death Decisions to Think About Now
- Conversation Scripts: Getting Past the Resistance
- The Proxy Quiz for Family & Physician
- What to Do After Signing Your Health Care Advance Directive
- Guide for Health Care Proxies
- Resources: Advance Planning for Health Care
Also see the ABA's 10 Legal Myths about Advance Medical Directives
American Society of Clinical Oncology & Cancer.net
The American Society of Clinical Oncology provides Resources for Patients Resources as well as a patient informational website, Cancer.net, which provides advanced care planning resources and a comprehensive Advance Care Planning Workbook.
CaringInfo
CaringInfo, a program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, offers free, state-specific advance directives for all 50 states and DC that meet the legal requirements for each state. Download individual copies for free or call (800) 658-8898 to have a copy mailed to you. Also access resources for advance care planning, care giving, grief, hospice, pain and palliative care.
Center for Practical Bioethics
Caring Conversations, from the Center for Practical Bioethics, is a workbook to help individuals and families communicate with each other about their healthcare preferences and contains advance directive documents. These forms are valid in every state when notarized and signed by two witnesses. Sign up for free resources, or order online, or call(816) 221-1100.
LastingMatters
LastingMatters helps any adult, at any age, compile, document and clearly communicate important information, intentions and wishes. The LastingMatters Organizer is a practical and comprehensive planning guide helping to reduce the costs, time, stress and family pressures associated with the death of a loved one.
Making Your Wishes Known
Making Your Wishes Known is an evidence-based, multimedia, online tool for advance care planning. It provides tailored education about common medical conditions that can result in decisional incapacity, as well as medical treatments often introduced in life or death situations. The program guides individuals to choose a spokesperson, prioritize values and goals, and match treatment options with priorities, and is unique in its use of a decision aid to translate individual values and preferences into a detailed advance directive document.
My Gift of Grace
My Gift of Grace is a conversation game for living and dying well. Designed as a fun, engaging way to start conversations with any group, the game is a tool suitable for players at all life stages.
National Association of Social Workers
The National Association of Social Workers Help Starts Here website features an Advance Care Planning resource center with tip sheets for planning before a crisis.