Organizations encouraging meaningful conversations about End-of-Life care
Release from WV Caring:
Arthurdale, W.Va. — WV Caring, one of the largest and most experienced providers of hospice and palliative care in the mid-Atlantic region, has teamed up with The Conversation Project, a national public engagement campaign, to educate people on the value of making decisions about their own wishes for end-of-life care and expressing them to their loved ones. Together the organizations are combining efforts to create positive change in the way our society deals with and prepares for their final days.
Starting today, April 9, 2018 , the partners will leverage National Healthcare Decision Day, recognized April 16th to kick off a grassroots and digital campaign to stimulate family conversations and offer local and national resources about end-of-life care options.
“We know that 90 percent of Americans say that talking about their end-of-life care wishes is important, but that only 30 percent of people are actually having these conversations. Our goal is to close this gap,” says Ellen Goodman, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and co-founder of The Conversation Project. “People fear that speaking to their loved ones about their final days would be too grim, but in reality, these are among the most intimate and meaningful conversations people can have.”
Malene Davis, WV Caring President and CEO, agreed, saying, “After serving patients and families struggling with advanced illness for more than 40 years, the comment we hear most frequently is, ‘I wish I had known about you (hospice care) sooner.’ By partnering with an organization dedicated to having the conversation before it’s too late, helps us educate the countless members of our community who need our help and don’t know where to turn,” Davis stated.
WVCaring’s service area includes 12 counties in northern West Virginia. It is part of the POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) Paradigm that originated in Oregon in the 1990s to combat the “failure of advance directives.” POLST is an approach to end-of-life planning that emphasizes advance care planning conversations and shared decision-making which culminates in the POST order set — an actionable set of medical orders that, according to the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, is far better than advance directives in following patient’s wishes.
Since August 2012, The Conversation Project has been inspiring end-of-life conversations within American homes, and it is garnering support on national, state and local levels. The Conversation Project’swebsite is the heart and home of the campaign’s work, which includes the Conversation Project Starter Kit,a free, downloadable, step-by-step guide developed to help individuals and families start the conversation about end-of-life care.
The Conversation Project does not promote any specific preference for end-of-life care or any legislative measure; instead, it inspires people to think about and express their end-of-life wishes. Launched in collaboration with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), The Conversation Project aims to spark cultural change by encouraging discussions to take place with love, ease, and reflection, before there is a healthcare crisis.
Organizations that have chosen to work in partnership with The Conversation Project are committed to changing our nation’s culture from not talking about end-of-life care to talking about it.Through corporations, community, and religious organizations, The Conversation Project is reaching people where they work, live and pray.
About The Conversation Project
The Conversation Project, co-founded by Pulitzer Prize-winner Ellen Goodman, launched in collaboration with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement(IHI,) is a public engagement campaign with a goal that is both simple and transformative: to have every one’s end-of-life care wishes expressed and respected. Too many people die in a manner they would not choose and too many of their loved ones are left feeling bereaved, guilty, and uncertain. The Conversation Project offers people the tools, guidance, and resources they need to process their final desires for their life and begin talking with their loved ones, in a comfortable setting, about their wishes and preferences. Have you had The Conversation? Learn more at: www.theconversationproject.org.
About WV Caring
WV Caring, a 501 (c) (3), non-profit organization, is dedicated to serving individuals and their families transitioning through life-limiting illness with palliative and hospice care while providing outreach, education and expertise in grief support to the entire community. WV Caring fills unmet patient care needs by taking on complicated diagnoses, making sure hospice pediatric care is available to our communities, and more that is not provided by other end-of-life care providers. WV Caring serves 12 counties in West Virginia since 1983. It is owned by the communities it serves in North Central West Virginia. In fact, WV Caring is one of a few not for profit, stand-alone advanced illness care providers serving this area. To learn more about WV Caring, visitwww.wvcaring.orgor call 866-656-9790.