END OF LIFE PLANNING

Advance Care Planning means deciding what types of treatment you would or would not want in case you are unable to make your own decisions. It allows you to maintain control over your treatment, should you experience a sudden unexpected illness or injury, as well as when you have reached the end of your life. By completing some simple forms, you can make sure that your family and caregivers know your wishes.

If you are not sure where to begin, our Advance Care Planning Workbook can help you think about who you would want to speak for you if you were unable to speak for yourself, how to talk with your loved ones about what matters most to you, how to document and share your decisions, so that your wishes are honored and when to review.

Advance Care Planning Workbook

Advance Directives describe two types of legal documents that let you plan for and communicate the types of treatment that you want, and to refuse treatments that you do not want. These documents are the NY Healthcare Proxy and the NY Living Will.

A healthcare proxy, or medical power of attorney, allows you to appoint a person you trust as your healthcare agent. It goes into effect only after a person’s physician concludes that they are unable to make their own medical decisions. If a person regains the ability to make decisions, the agent cannot continue to act on the person’s behalf.

A living will specifies your wishes concerning medical treatments at the end of life. Before your living will can guide medical decision-making, two physicians must certify that you are unable to make medical decisions for various limiting health conditions including a state of permanent unconsciousness.

It is important to have these documents in case of an accident or in cases where a person has been diagnosed with a life-limiting illness. You can download and print the documents from these links:

• Advanced Care Planning Booklet
• NY Healthcare Proxy Form (English)
• NY Healthcare Proxy Form (Spanish)
• NY Healthcare Proxy Documents Further Information

Hudson Valley Hospice has trained staff who can answer your questions about these documents. Please contact us 845-485-2273.

LIFT UP YOUR VOICE

No one wants to think about not being able to speak for themselves. Unfortunately, circumstances sometimes arise and we need someone who knows and will honor our wishes rather than having decisions made by individuals who do not truly know us. This concern is even more significant for people in marginalized communities, where disparities in health care continue to grow, particularly at the end of life. Hudson Valley Hospice wants to change this narrative. We would like to take this opportunity to share why we feel it is vital to explain the importance and benefits of Advance Care Planning to our community.

For almost fifty years, Hudson Valley Hospice has provided compassionate end-of-life care and family support to the residents of Dutchess and Ulster Counties, caring for over 620 patients in our community each and every day, 24/7 wherever they call home. We work to fulfill our mission of enhancing the quality of living for those at the end-of-life and supporting their loved ones and working to promote the availability and accessibility of quality hospice and palliative care for all persons in Dutchess and Ulster Counties confronted with a life-limiting illness.

It is our belief that quality end-of-life care should be available to all persons regardless of ethnicity, race, religion or financial status. One of the ways we are supporting this goal is by providing Advance Care Planning education and encouraging conversations to ensure the delivery of end-of-life care is driven by the wishes and desires of the patient and their loved ones, not by health care systems and their bias.

It is our goal to encourage individuals of any age, including those who may have been ignored or marginalized by hospitals, nursing homes and providers in the past, to engage in Advance Care Planning. We want to understand the cultural and spiritual barriers that might prevent the conversations that are necessary to complete advance care documents such as Health Care Proxies. We also want to help facilitate the difficult conversations that can be a part of completing these documents and can provide Hudson Valley Hospice’s Advance Care Planning Workbook to help support the process.

The workbook encourages you to consider who you would want to speak on your behalf of you were unable to advocate for yourself. It guides you in thinking about and discussing your wishes with loved ones, documenting the person you have chosen and the care you would want, and sharing these documents with loved ones and medical providers so that everyone understands and respects your wishes.

The shared understanding of your wishes, values and preferences is a meaningful gift to your loved ones, providing them with an opportunity to discuss, understand and have clear guidance, alleviating stress and potential conflict if they are confronted with a difficult time when important healthcare decisions need to be made. You can give them this gift and we can help you get started.

Interested in learning more, an individual session or hosting us for a conversation with your community about the importance of making our healthcare choices known, what to think about, how to have the difficult conversations, document wishes and ensure choices are honored? Call or email Kevin Bierfeldt today at (845) 240-7584 or email bierfeldtk@hvhospice.org.

Our program:

• Discuss the importance of making your health care choices known
• Learn to:
  • Think about who you want to speak for you if you can’t do so for yourself
  • Talk about your wishes at the end of life
  • Write down who you’ve selected and your wishes
  • Share the written documents with loved ones and medical providers

All events feature guest speaker Lisa Wilson, Executive Director of the Hudson Valley Hospice Foundation.