Happy National Healthcare Decisions Day
National Healthcare Decisions Day is held each year on April 16th – one day after Tax Day, when everyone has been thinking about paperwork and planning. National Healthcare Decisions Day is a time reserved to educate the public on the benefits of advance care planning. Events are held so members of the community can complete or update an advance directive. It’s an incredibly important mission.
There’s just one problem: No one wants to talk about dying.
Death and dying is an emotional subject that makes people uncomfortable. Some individuals superstitiously believe that if you talk about death, it may find you sooner. They avoid any conversation about advance directives, living wills, and other essential healthcare documents.
How do you want to live?
What these individuals don’t understand is that advance directives aren’t about how you want to die. Advance directives are the best way to establish how you want to live.
- Do you want to live at home or do you want to move to an assisted living facility?
- Do you want to live with a feeding tube?
- Do you want to live with machines that breathe for you?
These are important decisions and your doctor and family need to know the answers.
Answering these questions before a crisis hits and designating a healthcare power of attorney is the best way to ensure that your decisions on how you want to live are honored.
Completing an advance directive only takes a few minutes, and the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization has free advance directives and instructions for each state that can be opened as a PDF and downloaded.
To learn more about how to complete an advance directive, please call us at 1-888-564-3405.
Recommended Reading:
Advance Care Directive: What is it and How to Create One
Updating Your Advance Care Directive for 2019
Navigating Family Disagreements on Goals of Care
If you found this information helpful, please share it with your network and community.
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