AS you WISH
Advance directive can answer questions for caregivers
When a medical condition strikes, making it impossible to communicate with those around you, it’s helpful to have your wishes written down so your nearest and dearest know how best to make you comfortable.
A program Presbyterian Healthcare Services started early this year helps patients think about the type of care they want and who they prefer to make healthcare decisions for them should they be unable to do so themselves.
The Advance Care Planning Facilitator Program lets patients meet individually with a trained facilitator who guides them through questions that help them complete advance care directives that clarify the type of medical care they want and designate who should be involved in the decision making. The form containing the advance care directives is a legal document expressing their health care wishes.
Program manager Lorrie Griego. said the state’s Uniform Health Care Decisions Act allows patients to make oral or written advance directives, neither of which require specific language or notarization. An advance directive made by an adult with full mental capacity does not require any form of judicial approval.
“There is so much to talk to the doctor about during a medical visit that this sometimes gets put the to backburner. People need time to talk at greater length.
Maybe take an hour to think about what their wishes and values are. Our facilitators are trained to ask reflective questions so patients can think and have conversations with their family,” said Griego.
Program facilitators are volunteers who have a background in patient care, counseling, advanced care planning or chaplaincy. They undergo further training before meeting with patients. They help patients think about their fears, their goals and who they believe they can trust with medical decisions.
“They help people visualize a positive outcome; help them understand what comfort care really means to them,” Griego said.
Questions focus on decisions like whether a patient would want CPR if they had an incurable illness, who has access to medical records and whether they would donate their organs.
For Colista Reynolds, 67, her meeting with a program volunteer helped her realize some basic comforts she would want if she couldn’t speak for herself.
“I want to avoid anything that would make me nauseated. I hate being nauseated. I would much rather have pain than nausea,” Reynolds said. “Those were the kinds of things that I would put in writing so my family can do little things for me, especially if they don’t know what to do.”
Reynolds said she’d been given an advance care questionnaire during a routine wellness check at a Presbyterian clinic, but felt she needed help to understand implications of some of the questions before she felt confident to fill it out. Having the opportunity to discuss the questions in detail with the facilitator.
“I wanted to do this when I felt good, so I wouldn’t have to do it when I felt bad. These are difficult conversations to have,” Reynolds said.
Griego said individuals can be referred to a volunteer for help with advance care planning or they can call 505-938-6633 to make an appointment. There is no charge and you do not have to be a Presbyterian patient or have a Presbyterian health insurance plan to make an appointment, Griego said.