What is National Healthcare Decisions Day?

According to a survey published by the Pew Research Center, 95% of Americans have heard of a living will, which specifies the medical treatments that someone wants or doesn’t want at the end of his or her life. Unfortunately, less than a third of the U.S. population has actually created one (29%) according to that same survey.

A living will is part of an advance healthcare directive, which every adult should create in order to make his or her healthcare choices known in case he or she cannot later communicate them following an accident or life-threatening illness.

If you’re among the majority of Americans who haven’t created an advance healthcare directive yet, ask yourself the following questions:

• Would your spouse/partner, children, close friend or anyone else know your healthcare and/or medical-treatment desires if a serious accident or illness left you unable to speak for yourself?

• If an automobile accident left you incapable of breathing on your own, for instance, would the medical staff treating you know that you would want — or would not want — mechanical ventilation to keep you alive?

• In the event of a debilitating illness or accident that left you alive but permanently unconscious, would you want to receive artificially administered food and water?

• Do you feel comfortable potentially leaving your family members and/or loved ones in a situation where they might need to guess what you would want in terms of your medical care and/or live-saving procedures?

Creating an advance healthcare directive does not require hiring an attorney or, usually, any expense other than your time. All it generally takes is a willingness to think about what you want/don’t want, filling out and signing a few forms, and then making the existence of your formally stated wishes known to family members, friends, your attorney or doctor, etc.

Each year, April 16 marks National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD), an annual event that helps focus attention on the importance of advance healthcare planning. If you, or someone you love, still needs to establish an advance directive, then please make this year the one in which you formally make your wishes known before it’s too late!

Sources:

“More Americans Discussing — and Planning — End-of-Life Treatment,” January 5, 2006. The Pew Research Center. Retrieved January 1, 2017. http://people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/266.pdf