April 16th Is National Healthcare Decisions Day

Organizers of National Healthcare Decisions Day events hope to spur Americans to prepare and share their healthcare wishes while inspiring others to do so.

National Healthcare Decisions Day is held every year on April 16 — a day when national, state and community organizations host events across the country to remind us why it is important to make our future medical wishes known to others. While most of us dedicate time to plan for college, vacations or retirement, many overlook the importance of advance care planning for an unforeseen medical circumstance. Hence, the effort to educate and empower both professionals and the public about the importance of doing so is one that warrants continued annual attention.

The initiative began in 2006, when Nathan Kottkamp founded Virginia Advance Directives Day, laying the groundwork for what would become a national yearly observance. National Healthcare Decisions Day was officially launched in 2008 to assist people in making informed decisions about their future healthcare wishes. Since its inception, thousands of Americans have been encouraged to acknowledge their personal wishes, document them, and share them with family.

The Importance of Advance Care Planning

A living will specifies the medical treatments you do or do not want if you are unconscious or unable to speak for yourself.

A catastrophic medical event or injury can happen to anyone at any age, so advance care planning is not just for people who are ill or old. If you should become unable to communicate your wishes during a medical emergency, advance directives are legal documents that can help to ensure the care you would want for yourself is carried out by medical professionals.

A living will and durable power of attorney for healthcare are the most common of these documents. Without them, someone in your family may be required to make healthcare decisions for you, which may not be what you would have wanted for yourself.

A living will specifies a person’s preference for medical treatment in certain situations if they cannot communicate those for themselves. This often includes whether you want life-saving measures or not, or for how long, dependent upon certain criteria.

In those regards, a living will generally refers to the following medical treatments or procedures:

CPR – cardio-pulmonary resuscitation; employed to restart the heart if it stops

Mechanical Ventilation – requires a breathing tube and a machine that breathes for you when you cannot breathe on your own

Artificial nutrition and hydration – providing intravenous or tube feeding through the stomach if unable to drink or swallow

Comfort or Palliative Care – medications used to treat end-of-life symptoms, including pain or terminal agitation

Organ and Tissue Donation – noting your desire to donate for transplantation should you be declared brain dead

Body Donation – noting a desire to donate your body to benefit medical research after your death

A durable power of attorney for health care or medical power of attorney names a person that you want to act as your medical agent, or healthcare proxy. This person will make medical decisions on your behalf when you cannot make them for yourself. It is important to choose someone you trust and who is willing to do so for you.

Sharing Your Wishes is Key

National Healthcare Decisions Day

Although documenting your wishes is important, relaying those directly to family may be even more so. According to the National Institute on Aging, people are more likely to get the care they want for themselves if they make their wishes known to others, particularly to those who will become their decision makers.

The Conversation Project is the official website for National Healthcare Decisions Day. Resources, tools and information are available to help people to plan and initiate meaningful conversations with those who matter most in their life. A Facebook page where they share the following advice, offers further support:

“By encouraging people around you to talk about their wishes for care – and showing others that you have talked about your own wishes – you can be a conversation influencer.”

Additionally, Five Wishes is a program that offers an easy-to-understand online or printed advance directive where you can list your personal, spiritual, medical, and legal wishes all in one place. This document is legally valid in most states. There is a nominal fee to download or order the form.