April 16 – The Day to Decide, Discuss and Document Your Healthcare Wishes -- Center for Hospice Care Participates in National Healthcare Decisions Day
South Bend, IN (PRWEB) March 17, 2014 -- On April 16, 2014, Center for Hospice Care is joining a national effort to highlight the importance of advance healthcare decision-making—an effort that has culminated in the formal designation of April 16, 2014 as National Healthcare Decisions Day.
The goal of this nationwide initiative is to ensure that all adults with decision-making capacity have both the information and the opportunity to communicate and document their future healthcare decisions. In honor of National Healthcare Decisions Day, all Americans are encouraged to ensure that their future healthcare choices are known and protected.
An advance directive is a legal document that tells healthcare providers who it is that a patient has identified to make medical decisions on their behalf. National Healthcare Decisions Day exists to remind all people, regardless of age or current health of the importance of making these decisions known.
According to Amy Tribbett, Director of Marketing & Access, Center for Hospice Care will join healthcare organizations across the country in providing free information to the public to assist in executing written advance directives (healthcare power of attorney and living wills) and to help people talk with their family members and friends about their healthcare wishes.
“As a result of National Healthcare Decisions Day, more people in our community can be expected to have thoughtful conversations about their healthcare decisions and complete reliable advance directives to make their wishes known,” said Tribbett. “Fewer families and healthcare providers will have to struggle with making difficult healthcare decisions in the absence of guidance from the patient, and healthcare providers and facilities will be better equipped to address advance healthcare planning issues before a crisis and be better able to honor patient wishes when the time comes to do so.”
National Healthcare Decisions Day strives to provide much-needed information to the public, reduce the number of tragedies that occur when a person's wishes are unknown, and improve the ability of healthcare facilities and providers to offer informed and thoughtful guidance about advance healthcare planning to their patients.
There are no wrong answers when thinking about healthcare choices and completing an advance directive. Please use April 16 to decide, discuss, and document healthcare wishes.
Advance Directives packets, may be downloaded by logging onto centerforhospice.org and clicking on the Patients and Families tab, or by calling 1-800-HOSPICE (4677423) and requesting an Advance Directive packet be mailed to you.
Center for Hospice Care, a not for profit community agency, provides hospice, home health, bereavement services and community education on end of life care in eight counties in northern Indiana -- Starke, St. Joseph, Fulton, Marshall, LaPorte, Lagrange, Elkhart and Kosciusko.
Amy Tribbett, Center for Hospice Care, http://www.centerforhospice.org, +1 5742433711, [email protected]
Share this article