Advance care plan crucial
Sponsored Content - Apr 13, 2021 - Think Local

Photo: Contributed

It’s a topic not many people like to talk about, but it is one that could save your family from pain and anguish should something unfortunate happen to you.

The subject is advance care planning, and Central Okanagan Hospice Association is offering the chance for you to make critical decisions now that will help you and your loved ones later in life.

“It’s trying to make sure that your wishes are known and that they can be followed the way you intended them to be when you can’t speak for yourself,” COHA supportive care and bereavement volunteer Patty Walker says.

“It’s no different, really, than the other life planning we do. We do estate planning with our wills, and we do financial planning, planning for trips and planning for our retirement. We see this as basically just another element of life planning.”

There are three main aspects to advance care planning, and they can be done easily. The first step is to think about your values, beliefs and wishes related to health care and personal care as well as choosing whom you would like to have make health-care decisions on your behalf.

The second step is talking about what those wishes are, and the final move is to write them down in an advance care plan.

COHA’s next virtual session will coincide with National Advance Care Planning Day this Friday, April 16, from 1 to 3 p.m. There will be two more sessions next month, on Wednesday, May 5, from 1 to 3 p.m. and on Saturday, May 8, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Advance care planning is about much more than deciding whether or not to have someone “pull the plug.” Serious subjects like that are part of the plan, but there are less serious tasks that are still important to people. Perhaps you paint your toenails every week and want to keep doing that even if you are physically unable. Who will do it for you? And would you be OK with your spouse dressing you every day if you could not do it yourself?

“Some people are comfortable with that. Some people would want it to be anybody but their spouse,” COHA community services co-ordinator Bonnie Pontalti says.

COHA goes through as many scenarios as possible when conducting advance care planning, which is for anyone over the age of 18. Your wishes and beliefs can change over the course of your life, so your advance care plan should be reviewed every few years or when there are significant changes in your life.

“The most important part of it, really, is the thinking and the conversations around it so that if your representative or your family do find themselves in a situation that you hadn’t talked about, at least they understand where you’re coming from in a broader sense,” Walker says. “So that can also help them over and above what you may have written down.”

It should be noted that if you do not have an advance care plan, health-care providers will simply use a pre-determined list of relatives as substitute decision makers to determine who will make these decisions if you are unable to make them for yourself.

To register for COHA’s advance care planning sessions, visit its website or contact Pontalti via email at [email protected].

This article is written by or on behalf of the sponsoring client and does not necessarily reflect the views of Okanagan Edge.


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