Advance Care Planning
Sometimes because of illness or injury people are unable to talk to a doctor and decide about treatment for themselves. You may wish to plan in advance to make sure that your wishes about treatment will be followed if you become unable to decide for yourself for a short or long time period. If you don’t plan ahead, family members or other people close to you may not know your wishes. A new law in New York State allows a family member to be appointed on your behalf, but you may wish to designate someone ahead of time who might not be the same person selected under the state law.
In New York State, you can use a Health Care Proxy to appoint someone you can trust to decide about treatment if you become unable to decide for yourself. Tompkins County residents may contact Cayuga Medical Center to have their proxy forms or other advance directives posted on a secure, online website. Find out more.
If you have no one you can appoint to decide for you, or do not want to appoint someone, you can also give specific instructions about treatment in advance. Those instructions can be written, and are often referred to as a Living Will.
Why it makes a difference
Saoirse McClory, the director of community support at Hospicare, writes about the last days of her father’s life and how having a health care proxy made this a peaceful and caring time. Read one family's story.
What about my pets?
Read advice from the Tompkins County SPCA.
Online resources
Many web sites have collected information on advice on advance care planning:
New York State's advance care resources provide links on advance directives, including forms for a Health Care Proxy and Living Will.
Sharing Your Wishes is a program aimed at helping older adults become aware of the importance of planning in advance for their health care in the event that they experience an illness or condition that prevents them from making or communicating decisions. This is the best way to ensure that their choices are known, understood, and honored. Sharing Your Wishes programs, located in seven counties throughout Western and Central New York, is an effort is supported by the Community Health Foundation of Western and Central New York.
Five Wishes helps people with living wills. It is written in everyday language and designed to help start and structure important conversations about care in times of serious illness. Five Wishes was introduced in 1997 and originally distributed with support from a grant by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Compassion and Support at the End of Life. A community coalition in Rochester compiled links to advance care planning guides and forms. Information available in English and Spanish.
