Life Choices Team Assists With Advance Care Planning

Do your loved ones know—really know—how much or how little

life-extending care you would want at the end of your life? Don’t leave them

wondering. Making your end-of-life care decisions and wishes known ahead of

time helps your family, as well as your health care providers, know who’s in

charge of the situation and who will be making the decisions for you as the

patient. Advance care planning is just that—advanced. When an individual is in

the hospital dying or facing a devastating, life-changing alternative, it’s too

late to talk things over with family.

Houston Healthcare’s Life Choices Team – a group of nurses

and other clinical personnel – serve as resources for patients and families

wanting more information about end-of-life health care decisions. Advance

directives are written documents, such as a durable healthcare power of

attorney and living will, which allow you to document your end-of-life wishes,

putting you in control of your healthcare in the event that you are terminally

ill or critically injured and unable to talk or communicate.

“Advance health care planning ultimately saves your family

and/or friends from the pain and guilt of having to make the tough decisions

for you,” states Barbara Adkins, RN and Chair of the Life Choices Team. “It

also allows you to control the level of care you want, such as pain control and

hospice care. You may want to have a lot of care or very little care, but your

choice of care cannot be honored if it’s not known. Providing that information

ahead of time to your family and your physician can save everyone involved so

much time and anguish.”

A common misconception is that advance care planning is

something only the elderly, sick or dying should consider. As unpleasant as it

is to think about, healthy young people and middle-aged adults can, and do,

have life-changing accidents or illnesses that leave them unable to make their

own health care decisions. “Dying is not an easy topic to talk about with your

family, but if you don’t have the conversation early and at least start

thinking about it, then you won’t be ready when the time comes,” says Adkins.

“How you want to live or die is an important discussion that every family

member should have.”

There are several resources available that provide examples

and instructions on how to complete an advance directive.

Houston Healthcare

offers the Critical Conditionssm program to help educate people about making

final health care decisions. The program’s booklet provides several end-of-life

care scenarios to help families begin the discussion with their loved ones. A

Georgia Advance Directive for Healthcare, which combines the living will and

the durable health care power of attorney into one document, can be downloaded

at www.caringinfo.org.

“It’s also important to understand that your advance

directive goes into effect only when you are unable to communicate for

yourself,” explains Adkins. “Up until that point, you are still the one calling

the shots and making the decisions about your health care, and you can also

make changes to your advance directive at any time.”

Members of Houston Healthcare’s Life Choices Team are also

available to meet individually with patients and their families. For free

assistance in preparing an advance directive, please contact a Life Choices

Team member at Houston Medical Center by calling 975-5346, or a team member at

Perry Hospital by calling 218-1626.

According to Adkins, it’s a good idea to keep several copies

of your advance directive at home, as well as with the person you designated as

your health care spokesperson in case of an emergency. Letting your family know

where to find the copies and whom you have chosen to be your health care

spokesperson is also important and should be done after your final decisions

have been made.