National Healthcare Decisions Day Is Around The Corner

Credit: NHDD.org

April 16th is National Healthcare Decisions Day, a national initiative to encourage the public and healthcare providers to prioritize advance care planning. Making decisions ahead of a health crisis can help put families at ease and make sure patients’ healthcare wishes are known in the event that they become unable to speak for themselves. 

Advance care planning ensures that patients receive the care that they actually want.  When patients’ wishes are discussed ahead of time, families are spared the burden of having to make decisions for their loved one without knowing exactly what their loved one would have chosen for themselves. Such situations can cause guilt and uncertainty for family members, and lead to patients dying in manners they would not choose.  

The important aspects of advance care planning include clarifying a patient’s understanding of illness and treatment options and identifying their values, beliefs, and goals for medical care. Advance care planning often includes nominating a substitute decision-maker or surrogate for situations in which someone besides the patient needs to make decisions about medical care.

SevenPonds founder Suzette Sherman discusses
end-of-life wishes with her father using a deck of GoWish cards

National Healthcare Decisions Day is an initiative of The Conversation Project, a nonprofit and public initiative that aims to “have every person’s wishes for end-of-life care expressed and respected.” The Conversation Project began in 2010 at a gathering spearheaded by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Ellen Goodman. Media, clergy and medical professionals gathered to share stories of “good deaths” and “hard deaths” within their own circles, and The Conversation Project was born. 

Goodman served as a caregiver to her own mother after her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Since Goodman and her mother had never discussed end of life, Goodman had to make healthcare decisions for her mother without knowing her mother’s wishes. She recognized how valuable advance care planning would have been in her own situation and felt determined to spread the message about the importance of such planning. 

In 2011, the Conversation Project partnered with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and today The Conversation Project is run by Ellen Goodman and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement staff. The Conversation Project reports that their 2018 national survey revealed that while 92 percent of Americans say it’s important to discuss their wishes for end-of-life care, only 32 percent have had such conversations.  

Session at Reimagine End of Life in San Francisco where small breakout groups openly discuss their end-of-life wishes using decks of GoWish cards.

National Healthcare Decisions Day includes independent but coordinated state and local events, each of which aims to raise awareness about advance care planning. This year, The Minnesota Elder Justice Center, Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota and Elder Law Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association are planning a two location, four-hour advance planning event where nearly 50 volunteers from the legal community will draft and execute powers of attorney and healthcare directives for Minnesotans in need. To break the ice, volunteers will use games and hypotheticals before clients meet with attorneys. 

And in Portland, Maine, Changing the Face of Dying and The Southern Maine Chapter of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses is hosting a free open-education forum for the community. The event will include a screening of “Dying Well: Jack Fahey” (a personal account of voluntarily stopping eating and drinking or VSED), vendors with information on everything from hospice to Death Cafes to green burials, and a virtual reality experience about end-of-life called The Clay Lab. 

In all, over 50 independent but coordinated state and local events will take place as part of National Healthcare Decisions Day. The NHDD website has ideas and suggestions for ways to implement National Healthcare Decisions Day activities in your community.