National Healthcare Decisions Day
National Healthcare Decisions Day is April 16, and serves as an opportunity for conversations around wishes for end-of-life care between you and your loved ones. Too often we let those wishes go unspoken until a medical emergency arises – but a crisis is not the time to have difficult, complicated discussions. Emotions run high and it’s hard to think clearly, or you may be incapable of communicating for any number of reasons. It’s important that your medical team, family and friends know your preferences and choices ahead of time. We’re here with some resources to help you plan and put your mind at ease.
As you begin this process, the two most important documents are the Advance Directive and POLST.
This document provides the detailed legal instructions for your medical team, family and friends about what is important to you in the event you become incapacitated. With the help of a lawyer, this document also allows you to legally name someone to make health decisions on your behalf in the event of incapacity. During a medical emergency, you may not be able to communicate, so this document gives that person medical direction to make informed decisions on your behalf. It also directs the medical staff about with whom they can communicate about your care and from whom they can take advice.
A POLST is a portable medical order. In Oregon, there is a state POLST form you can fill out with a health care provider that essentially turns your medical wishes into documents that can travel with you across care facilities, helping providers better understand and honor your wishes. These are documented in your medical records, but also serve as an on-the-go document available in case of emergency.
In the absence of the direction these documents give, health care providers will automatically perform treatment focused on saving your life. This is called the standard of care - but depending on where you are in your life and what your beliefs may be, this standard may or may not suit your interests. That’s why it’s so crucial to consider your wishes now.
Wonderful resources for advance planning can also be found at The Conversation Project, which offers guides to starting the conversation with your family, to talking with your health care team, and to figuring out what matters most to you about your care. If you were diagnosed with a serious illness, how much information would you want from your care team? Where do you prefer to be toward the end of your life? These are questions The Conversation Project’s guides can help you work through.
Five Wishes, a program recently adopted by Cascade Health as a community resource, offers a simple, easy-to-fill-out advance directive that is valid under the laws of most states, including Oregon. In just a few pages, it gathers information on five major decisions or wishes:
The person you want to make health care decisions for you when you can’t make them for yourself;
The kind of medical treatment you want or don’t want;
How you want to be kept comfortable;
How you want people to treat you; and
What you want your loved ones to know.
Talking about illness and end-of-life care can be tough, but doing it now gives you a say in your healthcare, both now and later.