The Conversation Project: The Conversation Project is dedicated to helping people talk about their wishes for end-of-life care.
We developed the original Conversation Starter Kit as a useful tool to help people have conversations with their family members or other loved ones about their wishes regarding end-of-life care. Since then, we have translated the Starter Kit into several languages, and developed additional Starter Kits listed below. All are available to download for free.
Your Conversation Starter Kit [PDF]: When it comes to end-of-life care, talking matters.
Talking with your loved ones openly and honestly, before a medical crisis happens, gives everyone a shared understanding about what matters most to you at the end of life. You can use this Starter Kit whether you are getting ready to tell someone else what you want, or you want to help someone else get ready to share their wishes.
How To Choose A Health Care Proxy and How To Be A Health Care Proxy [PDF]:
In addition to having the conversation, it’s important to choose a health care proxy – the person who will make decisions about your medical care if you become unable to make them for yourself. This new user-friendly guide offers facts and tips necessary to make sound decisions about choosing, and being, a health care proxy.
This Starter Kit is specifically designed to help families and loved ones of people with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia who want guidance about “having the conversation.” We appreciate the difficulty — and the importance — of having these conversations.
Making Medical Decisions For Someone Else: A How To Guide from the American Bar Association.
CaringInfo from The National Hospice And Palliative Care Organization
RC’s goal is to design a system of person-centered care that is guided by the best scientific evidence and is aligned with an individual’s goals and values.
This system requires a shared decision-making process that involves respectful interaction among providers, individuals, and families, and keeps the focus of planning on what matters most to each and every person for any healthcare decision.
Shared Decision Making in Serious Illness from Respecting Choices:
A central component of our person-centered decision-making approach is the role of the physician/provider in assisting individuals to make treatment decisions that align with their goals and values, i.e., what matters most.
The Shared Decision Making in Serious Illness (SDMSI) Curriculum is intended for physicians and other providers caring for patients with serious illness and their families. This 5.5-hour competency based curriculum is divided into Module 1 (Discerning What Matters Most to Patients) and Module 2 (Aligning Treatment with What Matters Most to Patients) which can be offered together in one session, or in two sequential sessions.
