“National Healthcare Decisions Day” is Thursday, April 16, a day meant to encourage Americans to think about Advance Care Planning. Making plans for the possibility of a serious and even life-threatening illness is now a difficult reality in uncertain times.
Our lives have certainly changed this year as COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world, including here in the U.S. It has brought issues of health-care planning to the forefront for many people.
Besides social-distancing and shelter-in-place requirements that have drastically changed our daily lives, COVID-19 is spurring another trend. More Americans are thinking about healthcare and having conversations with loved ones about their end-of-life wishes.
The current outbreak has highlighted that none of us can predict what will happen or when, so it is important to have plans in place before they are needed. Family members may not always be able to be on-hand so having the appropriate documentation is especially important.
What are Advance Care Plans? Advance Care Plans are anything you put into writing about the health care you would want to receive if you couldn’t speak for yourself and doctors and/or family members were making decisions for you.
“I’m too young — and too health y— to need an advance care plan.” I hear this often and want to respectfully offer another opinion from my years caring for hospice patients: You will never be truly ready for a serious illness. But having a plan can ease the burden for you and your family.
Make it legal. Everyone age 18 and older should have an Advance Care Plan. Revisit it every five years — or during any significant life change, such as a marriage, divorce or birth of a child.
Part of your plan will mean signing legal documents, called advance health directives. You will choose a healthcare agent, or proxy, who can make decisions on your behalf, and you will usually sign some form of living will.
Other pieces of your plan can be less official, for example, a letter for your loved ones that explains the physical, emotional and spiritual comforts important to you.
Start the conversation now. Advance Care Planning can be done right at home, and what better time for that than the present? You can find more information about Advance Care Planning, a link to state-specific directives and a free guidebook to download a https://stcroixhospice.com/hospice/advance-care-planning/
A Google search will yield your state’s forms too.
Serious illness and death aren’t things we like to think about. But having a plan in place removes the unknowns and “what ifs” for you and your loved ones. I’ve yet to meet someone who regrets it, and April 16 is a great day to start thinking about it.
Andrew Mayo, M.D., is a hospice physician and Chief Medical Officer at Oakdale-based St. Croix Hospice.
Dr. Mayo is a member of the family that founded the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. I’m pleased that he is continuing his family’s traditional commitment to the public’s health and welfare by dedicating himself to end-of-life care. As our population ages, many more of us need help in making decisions and plans to be sure our wishes and choices are honored as we face our own mortality.
The R2D Rebreather is an immediately available, inexpensive, easy to use and effective option throughout the pandemic for anyone who chooses a deliberate life completion. I ordered mine last week and its delivery is scheduled within a few days.
The other methods that Exit International, Final Exit Network and other groups have so conscientiously and laboriously developed or researched fade into comparison with the “Debreather” as I like to call it. It seems like the perfect solution:
None of the obstacles and possible nasty side effects with ingesting substances, or stopping eating/drinking, or difficulties getting and assembling one’s own inert gas contraption. Not to mention the time delay and expense of involving a doctor and expensive drugs if one qualifies under medical-aid-in-dying laws, or even a very costly trip to Switzerland.
For slightly over $200. (U.S.) I can indefinitely keep at my home a cheap, quick means of self deliverance that is easy to get and simple to use.
It seems an inexpensive and best-case-scenario has in fact been developed.
Maybe it’s time to cease researching all those other less attractive options and just promote the best one?
It seems logical that every death with dignity group worldwide should be supporting and promoting the R2D Rebreather, available at: https://www.right2die.org
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Last time I checked, which was within a year, there was not one single known instance of the R2D Rebreather ever being used effectively — or ineffectively, for that matter. There was no track record of the R2D Rebreather ever being used at all. Has there been a recent mass testing program? I wonder how anyone could confidently say it is an “effective option.” Years ago, old-timers in the RTD movement found that facemask technology was unreliable, and I’ve never heard of any empirical evidence that the R2D Rebreather has solved that problem. Moreover, the public website you posted is to law enforcement what the matador’s red flag is to the bull.