Compassion and Choices to Participate in the Healthy Living Festival

by Elizabeth Matsushita (Contributor)

Compassion & Choices of Northern California, an organization that provides free end-of-life consultations to the terminally ill and their families, will be participating in this year’s 8th Annual Healthy Living Festival at the Oakland Zoo this Friday.  The festival is organized by the non-profit United Seniors of Oakland and Alameda County (USOAC) and aims at promoting healthy living generally, with a specific interest in engaging and educating local seniors.  Its inaugural event took place in 2004: originally intended to get only a few hundred of the 60+ set involved, it blossomed into a major Alameda County event, replete with healthy meals, dozens of exhibitors, and a Walk-a-Thon around Lake Merritt.

HLF moved to its current venue, the Oakland Zoo, in 2010 to accommodate its growing size and to provide better handicap accessibility.  The traditional walk around Lake Merritt has been replaced with a walk through the zoo and the fun opportunity to see over 600 species of animals (great for the kids!).

This festival provides the perfect venue for Compassion & Choices to reach out to the public and inform people of its services.  Founded in 1993 during the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic, the founders of Compassion & Choices were struck by the prolonged and violent deaths of so many AIDS patients.  They became dedicated to educating people about end-of-life alternatives and promoting the option of a peaceful death process.  However, unlike so-called right-to-die organizations, Compassion & Choices is committed to remaining within the bounds of the law. At most, the organization will advocate changes to existing laws, but never bending or breaking them.

In a recent interview with SevenPonds, Carole van Aelstyn, the Client Support Coordinator for Northern California, described Compassion & Choice’s diverse activities.  “We educate people on their options and advocate for people unable to receive services,” she told us.  “We try to change the laws–Montana is our latest success.  We brought aid-in-dying to the state supreme court, so it is now available because of our efforts.”

Another successful case occurred in California, where in 2001 Compassion & Choices argued for an elderly man who had been under-treated for pain in his last days.  This case led directly to the California legislature’s passage of a law which requires physicians to complete education in pain management and end-of-life choices, a major breakthrough for end-of-life activism.

Though Compassion & Choices is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, counselors are available to take calls from anywhere in the country using an 800 number.  Counseling on legal options, pain relief, hospice referrals, and advance care directives are provided for free.

Information on this impressive list of services, as well as plenty of other resources, will be available to everyone who attends the Healthy Living Festival.  The festival takes place this Friday, July 15th at the Oakland Zoo, from 8 am to 2 pm.  Register to attend at their website.

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