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Struggles surrounding the life and
death of Terri Schiavo highlighted the importance of
planning for care at the end of life. In Idaho, there
are provisions for expressing your wishes now, when you
are able to speak for yourself. This is a living will.
Idaho also made provisions in case at some time in the
future you are not able to express your wishes for
medical treatment and end-of-life care. This is a
durable power of attorney for health care. As of July 1, 2007, the Physician’s Order for Scope of Treatment has been in place and provides greater flexibility over old DNR forms; more importantly it is portable, meaning it moves with the patient as they go from one setting to another. It is very
important that all people 18 years and older talk to
people about their wishes for end-of-life care and then
complete advance directive documents.
The Right Choice is a program to promote
advance care planning in Idaho. It is sponsored by A
Better Way Coalition: Life on Our Own Terms. We know
that talking about the end-of-life can be difficult. We
also know that without these conversations there is a
good chance your wishes may not be followed.
The Right Choice program encourages you
to:
1. Talk with your family and
friends about different options for end-of-life care.
2. Decide what options best
reflect how you think and feel about life and death and
what is
important to you.
3. Select a person to speak for
you if in the future you are unable to speak for
yourself (durable
power of attorney for
health care.)
4. Complete your advance
directives: Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney
for Health Care. If
you like, attach additional
information about your values and personal wishes for
end-of-life care.
5. File the original copy of your
advance directives in a safe place and provide copies to
key people:
your physician, the person
holding the durable power of attorney for health care,
and a member
of your family. Some faith
communities and hospitals will keep a copy of your
advance directives
on file. Register Your Advance Directives with the Secretary of State’s Office – Idaho’s Health Care Directive Registry allows people in Idaho to place their living will and durable power of attorney for health care (advance directives) in the Registry and receive a special code. With permission from the patient and this code, any health care provider will be able to access the advance directive, reducing the time it takes to retrieve this important information in life threatening situations. Carry your Idaho Health Care Directives card next to your driver's license or identification card.
6. Review your advance directive
every year. Update it if necessary.
Isn't it time to take time?
University of Idaho website about advance planning
and talking with your family about end of life
decisions. "Getting started is the hardest part." Video
streaming of people in Idaho talking about end of life
and advance directives.
The American Bar Association Commission
on Law and Aging says… Writing an advance directive by
itself does not ensure that your wishes will be
understood and respected. Studies have shown that
standard advance directive forms do little to influence
end-of-life decisions without: 1) informed, thoughtful
reflection about your wishes and values, and 2) personal
communication between you and your likely
decision-makers before a crisis occurs. Good advance
planning for health care decisions is, in reality, a
continuing conversation - about values, priorities, the
meaning of one's life, and quality of life.
The Commission developed a
Consumer Tool kit for Health Care Advance Planning to
help you in this process. This tool kit contains a
variety of self-help worksheets, suggestions, and
resources. There are 10 tools in all, each clearly
labeled and user-friendly. The tool kit does not create
a formal advance directive for you. Instead, it helps
you do the much harder job of discovering, clarifying,
and communicating what is important to you in the face
of serious illness. (Pages in the toolkit take a few
moments to load – it is worth waiting.)
ABA Tool kit Contents
1. How to Select Your health Care Agent
or Proxy
2. Are Some Conditions Worse than Death
3. How Do You Weigh Odds of Survival
4. Personal Priorities & Spiritual Values
Important to Your Medical Decisions
5. After Death Decisions to Think About
Now
6. Conversation Scripts: Getting Past the
Resistance
7. The Proxy Quiz for Family or Physician
8. What to Do After Signing Your Health
Care Directives (Advance Directives)
9. Guide for Health Care Proxies (Durable
Power of Attorney for Health Care)
10. Resources: Advance Planning for
Health Care (Advance Care Planning)
Advance Care Planning Resources
Send your favorite sites to Jill Darrington, A Better Way Coalition.
If you find a dead site - let us know!
Here you will find information about the Idaho Health Care Directive Registry, Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, and the Idaho POST Form http://www.idsos.state.id.us/
When you were born, your parents spent
nine months preparing for your birth. This same kind of
planning should be applied at the end-of-life. Talking
and planning for death are the very acts that may allow
you to live a fuller and more comfortable life in your
final days. - AARP
AARP End of Life – Talking About Your Final Wishes
Thinking and talking bout your death is
hard, but planning for it can help you live – and die –
the way you want.
Caring Connections
Caring Connections urges everyone,
regardless of their age, to take this opportunity to
discuss their end-of-life wishes with family members and
put them in writing with advance directives. Caring
Connections provides free information and state-specific
advance directives to assist you in advance care
planning. If you have questions, please call the free
help line at 1.800.658.8898.
Family Caregiver Alliance - End-of-Life Decision-Making
Big issues confront us when we think
about our own death or that of someone we love. Our
attitudes and beliefs about religion, pain, suffering,
loss of consciousness, and leaving behind those we love
come into play… it is good to plan.
Five Wishes
The Five Wishes document helps you
express how you want to be treated if you are seriously
ill and unable to speak for yourself. It is unique among
all other living will and health agent forms because it
looks to all of a person's needs: medical, personal,
emotional and spiritual…
Glossary of Terms for End of Life Planning
End-of-life planning involves making
decisions about how you would like to be treated at the
end of your life and who you would like to represent you
should you become incapacitated. Communicating these
decisions to your family, friends, and health care
providers is an important part of the planning process.
In order to make informed decisions, one needs to be
comfortable with the many unfamiliar terms that are
associated with preparing for the end-of-life.
Hard Choices for Loving People
CPR, Artificial Feeding, Comfort Care and
the Patient with a Life-Threatening Illness, by Hank
Dunn. Available in English and Spanish.
Idaho Department of Health & Welfare
Be aware that your Idaho documents will
not be effective in the event of a medical emergency.
Ambulance personnel are required to provide
cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) unless they are
given a separate order that states otherwise. These
orders, commonly called "non-hospital do-not-resuscitate
orders," are designed for people whose poor health gives
them little chance of benefiting from CPR….
Idaho Legal Aid Services
Idaho Legal Aid Services, Inc. (ILAS)
celebrated its 35th year anniversary in 2003. ILAS is a
nonprofit Idaho corporation with offices throughout the
state. Our mission is to seek equal justice for the
underprivileged. Our purpose is to provide legal
representation and community education to low income
Idahoans.
Idaho Office of Attorney General's
webpage on living wills and the Idaho Natural Death
Act.
We plan for many important events
in life. We plan for retirement, a wedding,
vacations, and for a child’s education. Sadly, the
health choices that are made at the end of life are
seldom planned and many times they are made for us.
Decisions are put off and desires are not expressed
because it is difficult to contemplate or discuss
death.
Idaho Volunteer Lawyers Program
If you are low income and need a lawyer
for a civil matter, the Idaho Volunteer Lawyers Program
(IVLP) may be able to help. Using a statewide network of
volunteer attorneys, the IVLP provides free civil legal
assistance through advice and consultation, brief legal
services and representation in certain cases to persons
living in poverty.
MAYO Clinic – Making Your Medical Care Wishes
Known
In determining your wishes, think about
your values, such as the importance to you of
independence and self-sufficiency and what you feel
would make your life not worth living. Is the treatment
lifesaving or life sustaining? Does that make a
difference to you…
National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization - NHPCO
Has free brochures and state-specific
advance directives to provide you with information and
resources for advance care planning. If you have
questions, please call NHPCO Monday-Friday 9:00-5:00 PM
ET.
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