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The Conversation Project

Posted on 10/05/2012

Health In Aging: It’s not easy to contemplate the end of your life and consider what kind of care you do, and don’t, want when that time comes. And it’s equally difficult to talk with a loved one about the kind of end-of-care care he or she would prefer. My guess is that discussions like these are particularly difficult for us in the US, where we tend to shy away from discussions about death in general. “We Americans don’t like limits, we don’t like boundaries, (and) death is the ultimate boundary,” the journalist Bill Moyers recently pointed out. “So why talk about something we don’t want to happen?” The answer to that question is this: As uncomfortable as discussions about what we and our loved ones want at the end of life may be, these are among the most important conversations we will ever have. Deciding in advance what care we do and don’t want, while we are able to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of our options and share and discuss our choices with those we love and our healthcare providers, can make the difference between a good death and one that is less so. Encouraging these essential conversations—with both your loved ones and your healthcare providers—is the focus of The Conversation Project.

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