Although most of us don’t want to think about end-of-life decisions for ourselves or for our loved ones because it’s unpleasant, it’s vital we do so now, before we’re ever at the point where we’ve waited too long.
Tomorrow, April 16, is National Healthcare Decisions Day, a nationwide effort to highlight the importance of advance healthcare decision-making. The initiative works to provide clear, concise and consistent information on healthcare decision-making by providing free, simple and uniform tools to guide the process.
One of the tools that’s advocated by St. Elizabeth Hospice is a document called Five Wishes, which is provided by the nonprofit Aging with Dignity as a valid advance directive under most state’s laws, including Kentucky’s.
Five Wishes helps people plan in advance of a serious illness and is the most widely used advance directive or living will in America today.
Specifically, the document helps people address:
- The person I want to make care decisions for me when I can’t
- The kind of medical treatment I want or don’t want
- How comfortable I want to be
- How I want people to treat me
- What I want my loved ones to know
Your end-of-life desires are very personal. Because Five Wishes is written in everyday language, it helps people express their wishes in the areas that matter most – not just medical and legal, but personal and spiritual, as well.
It also allows your caregiver to know exactly what you want and can be used by families to help start and guide family conversations about care in times of serious illness.
Brian Jones, director of Hospice and Palliative Care for St. Elizabeth Healthcare, stresses that taking an hour now in consultation with your family to fill out the Five Wishes document can avoid unnecessary grief and futile care at the end-of-life.
St. Elizabeth Hospice provides educational presentations on the Five Wishes document and how to fill it out. Call (859) 301-4600 for more information.
