There are many tools and resources for healthcare organizations, providers, and patients in the challenging work of ensuring that patient’s healthcare wishes are honored throughout life.
CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW FOR ACP RESOURCES FOR HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS, PROVIDERS, AND PATIENTS.
Advance Care Planning Decisions
provides a library of tools and videos designed to help healthcare providers and administrators efficiently provide advanced care planning services and improve the quality of end-of-life care. The tools are in multiple languages. The ACP Decisions Video Library consists of over 280 videos in 20 different languages. They address a range of issues and fall under three categories: Video Decision Aids, Free Standing Educational Videos, and Caregiver Videos. https://www.acpdecisions.org/
Caring Conversations Workbook. Published by the Center for Practical Bioethics, the Caring Conversations® Workbook and related materials guide persons and their loved ones through the process of advance care planning with a highly individualized focus. Information is also available about the POLST advance directive. Materials may be downloaded for free for personal use from the website: https://www.practicalbioethics.org/featured-resources/caring-conversations-2/
Consumer's Tool Kit for Health Care Advance Planning. Prepared by the American Bar Association’s Commission on Law and Aging, this Tool Kit contains a variety of self-help worksheets, suggestions, and resources. There are currently 8 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. The Tool Kit is available for free download at: https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/law_aging/2020-tool-kit-hcap.pdf
Five Wishes for Healthcare Organizations – a program of Aging with Dignity The Five Wishes Program for Healthcare offers a suite of tools and resources for healthcare providers, including accessible clinical training, consulting, and custom-built virtual solutions. The program works for large health systems, hospices, long-term care, clinics, physicians, and all other practice settings - because you choose which components are right for you. https://www.fivewishes.org/healthcare/
The Five Wishes Advance Directive is an easy-to-use legal advance directive document written in everyday language. It helps all adults, regardless of age or health, to consider and document how they want to be cared for at the end of life. It addresses all of a person's needs: medical, personal, emotional and spiritual. The advance directive and guide are available in thirty languages and in Braille. It is available digitally and on paper for a nominal fee. Digital versions can be electronically signed and witnessed and customized to meet legal requirements in all 50 states. The digital service offers unlimited updates. The paper version is legal in all states except New Hampshire, Kansas, Ohio, and Texas. https://www.fivewishes.org/about-five-wishes/
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) - Conversation Ready Initiative The IHI "Conversation Ready" approach seeks to help healthcare organizations and clinicians provide respectful end-of-life care that is concordant with patients’ stated goals, values, and preferences. The framework is relevant whether you are a leader in a large hospital, a social worker in the community, a doctor in a clinic, or a palliative care nurse in a skilled nursing facility. https://www.ihi.org/resources/white-papers/conversation-ready-framework-improving-end-life-care
PREPARE - Prepare for your Care This free website is designed to help people and their loved ones prepare for medical decision-making by guiding the user through five easily understandable steps. PREPARE has 2 programs with video stories to help you: 1) Have a voice in your own medical care; and 2) Help other people with their medical planning and decisions. The Prepare program, videos, and materials have been researched and found to be successful. Multiple video aids are available. Legal advance directives are provided for all fifty states in both English and Spanish. Advance directives in Chinese are available for some states. You may print and complete on paper, or complete online and print. There are also scripts and tools available for healthcare providers and organizations. https://prepareforyourcare.org/en/welcome
Respecting Choices Respecting Choices seeks to provide a system for person-centered decision-making that will transform healthcare systems. Respecting Choices guides organizations and communities worldwide to integrate and disseminate evidence-based best practices that ensure individuals’ preferences and decisions for healthcare are known and honored. They offer evidence-based training for advance care planning. Respecting Choices has an array of educational programs to support an organization or community transform to a person-centered healthcare culture. The curriculum includes both communication skills and education for health professionals and others as well as design and integration strategies for improving systems and workflows to make person-centered goals the routines of care. https://respectingchoices.org/
The Conversation Project The Conversation Project® is a public engagement initiative of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). It is dedicated to helping everyone talk about their wishes for care through the end of life, so those wishes can be understood and respected. Resources include seven workbooks that may be downloaded for free. They offer guides for talking with special populations such as persons with dementia, children, and persons with serious illness. The Conversation Project also has a guide to help people talk to their healthcare providers. The Conversation Project provides resources for healthcare providers, faith leaders, and communities. https://theconversationproject.org/
Wisconsin Medical Society - Honoring Choices Wisconsin (HCW) is an initiative of the Wisconsin Medical Society to build system change, advocacy, and education around advance care planning. Through HCW, the Society serves as convener, coordinator and catalyst to make advance care planning a routine and standard part of health care across Wisconsin. The Medical Society provides clinical training and guidance, encourages healthcare system collaboration, increases physician engagement, and develops common language and tools. https://www.wismed.org/wisconsin/wismed/about-us/honoring-choices/wismed/about-us/honoring-choices.aspx?hkey=05044a12-ed7d-47c7-95e5-f9d697ffdf27
