Ellen Goodman and her mother spoke about everything except one thing: how her mother wanted to live at the end of her life. Watch this moving video where Ellen shares her personal experience of caring for her mom who had dementia.
“I didn’t know how important it was to have these conversations early…”
How To Afford Caregiving With Long Term Care Insurance
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This is a great video! While Ellen addresses dementia specifically, her message applies to everyone!
I’m preaching to the choir here, but I believe that until Advance Care Planning is integrated into our national, state and regional public health agenda, acceptance (and action) on ACP will continue to move at a glacial pace. (I say “glacial” but I do recognize there’s much progress!!)
We need to upstream and normalize talking about the universal experience that we are ALL going to die. If we make ACP a public health concern and integrate the advance care planning discussions into health promotion activities, we can more quickly reshape how we make decisions about the last chapters of our lives.
The Conversation Project, National Healthcare Decisions Day, myriad other programs hither and yon that encourage us to “have the conversation” have had a significant impact on raising awareness on the topic — but, to me, the efforts are still much too “siloed.”
Integrate ACP into the public health agenda! Our cultural lack of openness on accepting that we are all going to die, affects the quality and spectrum of care and support services. It also affects the well-being of our professional care providers when we end up in a crisis and there has been no prior conversations about our EoL wishes.
ACP: a public health concern! Let’s make it happen!
#ACPpublichealthagenda #ACPAnywhere #ACPnow!
Greetings –
Love this video so much. Have you considered including End of Life Doula work or resources on your site? This is a wonderful way to bring in the conversation of Health Care Directives, what specific support the family and loved one needs/wishes at the end of life and more.
My mother has Alzheimer’s and considering the use of VSED to end her life early. This could be another topic on your site.
Just a few thoughts. I so appreciate you being a recourse for all!
Warmly, Wendy Brown