Advance Care Planning: The Best Gift You Can Give Your Family

Many people find that talking about end-of-life issues with family and friends can be emotional and difficult. Having this discussion and documenting your wishes helps to lessen stress and anxiety for the family in the event that someone needs to step in as the healthcare decision maker.

Advance care planning is a process of thinking about your wishes and desires should you experience a sudden illness or injury, or a chronic or life-limiting illness. Documenting your wishes and desires through advance directives provides the medical team and your healthcare decision makers with a roadmap as to what your wishes would be.

Anyone can be involved in discussing our advance care planning. However, it is important to review this document and express your wishes to the person that you will identify as your healthcare surrogate because they will be the one who will follow through with your wishes.

Within the document, there are two sections:

• Health Care Surrogate
• Living Will

A healthcare surrogate is a spokesperson, someone you trust, to represent your wishes to the medical team in the event that you are unable to communicate these wishes on your own. It is advised to have a dialogue with your appointed healthcare surrogate often so that they stay up to date on your wishes as preferences and circumstances change.

A living will is where your wishes and preferences will indicate what type of life-sustaining treatment you would want and not want if you cannot be cured and getting better is not possible. You will want your healthcare surrogate and healthcare providers to follow these choices if you are unable to communicate your wishes.

It is always important that you select a healthcare surrogate that will be able to honor your choices and decisions because your treatment preferences may not be followed if your healthcare surrogate decides otherwise.

Advance care planning is a gift you can give to your family because they will know your wishes and will honor the choices you have made. At Moffitt, we encourage you to talk to your family and others involved in your health care and have certified facilitators for advance care planning to assist you with the process.

To reach one of the facilitators for assistance, please contact Patient Support Services at 813-745-8407.