Former First Lady, Barbara Bush’s decision to choose “comfort care”, also known as palliative care and hospice, over medical treatment at this stage in her illness brings awareness to patient-centered choice, pain-free options, and quality of life during one’s final months or days.
We applaud Mrs. Bush for making a decision that enables her to rest in comfort and in the good hands of a trained care team enabling her to live life on her terms with family at her side in the comfort of her own home.
This news comes as we celebrate National Healthcare Decisions Day, April 16, 2018 and kick off of NHDD Week, an annual event aimed to help people in Connecticut and across the country understand the value of advance healthcare planning.
What happens in Washington, D.C. is important, but more so is what happens in our own living rooms and around our kitchen tables. The Connecticut Association for Healthcare at Home and our member home health and hospice agencies encourages you to have “the difficult conversation” with your loved ones about your wishes for end-of life.
Sixty percent of people believe don’t want their family burdened by their end-of-life care planning, but more than half have not spoken to their loved ones about their preferences, according to a 2012 survey by the California HealthCare Foundation.
Advance care planning helps families avoid crisis decision-making and can save families and our nation’s healthcare system from unnecessary, futile and costly end-of-life hospital treatment when a patient is unable to express their wishes. It’s never too early to put your wishes down on paper.
The Conversation Project provides free, objective, step-by-step tools to facilitate conversations between family members and physicians.
Deborah Hoyt President and CEO CT Association for Healthcare at Home
photo: Washington Post
P.S. To learn more about comfort care and the impact on families visit this site
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