Five Wishes lets your family and doctors know:
-
Which person you want to make health
care decisions for you when you can't make them.
-
The kind of medical treatment you
want or don't want.
-
How comfortable you want to be.
-
How you want people to treat you.
-
What you want your loved ones to
know.
Five Wishes is
changing the way America talks about and plans for care at the end
of life. More than TWELVE MILLION
COPIES of the document are circulating throughout the nation.
In addition, more than 15,000 ORGANIZATIONS are distributing
this revolutionary document, including churches, synagogues,
hospices, hospitals, doctor and law offices, and social service
agencies. Many
employers are providing Five Wishes to their
employees to help them plan for themselves and have those delicate
discussions with their aging parents.
The document speaks to people in their own language, not
in "doctor speak" or "lawyer talk." It can be used in the
living room instead of the emergency room. And it helps
families talk with their physician about a difficult subject.
There are a few
states
in which Five Wishes does not yet meet the legal
requirements. These states either require a specific state
form or that the person completing an advance directive be read a
mandatory notice or "warning." Residents of these states can
still use
Five Wishes to put their wishes in writing and communicate
their wishes with their family and physician. Most health care
professionals understand they have a duty to listen to the wishes of
their patients no matter how they are expressed.
Five Wishes was introduced and originally distributed with
support from a generous grant by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and
health care.
