For our fourth week in April honoring National Healthcare Decisions Day (April 16), we will complete this series by discussing two additional topics that can be added to an Advance Directive as addendums. Both are important and worth discussing. So, let’s get...
Now that you have hopefully talked with your loved ones about getting an Advance Directive (AD) done, or are thinking about updating it, here is a little more information. By the way, it is recommended that people review their Advance Directive every five years or...
Although conversations about Advance Care Planning may seem awkward at first, they often bring family members closer together. Talking about death/end of life is deeply personal. Sharing beliefs and desires with those closest to you produces a more intimate...
Most of the work we do at End of Life Choices California involves talking with people about dying: addressing their fears, providing support with problem solving, helping them access the resources they need to plan for the kind of death they wish for. Some people...
When I read The Washington Post article's title, “At 94, she was ready to die by fasting,” I thought “Oh no!” Upon further reading, I learned that Rosemary Bowen did not actually fast, which by definition is stopping all nutritional intake, but rather, she...
This extraordinary piece we share with you today is a thoughtful and moving example of just what it takes to get well-meaning medical providers to pay attention to what we (the patients) want, not what they think we need. The story is a hard but valuable lesson about...
As of Tuesday, August 27, an appeals court in New Jersey overturned the restraining order mentioned in this post, which halted New Jersey’s “Aid in Dying” law, now making it lawful for terminally ill individuals to request a prescription from their physician to end...
I was talking with my friend, Jen, today and she told me about the death of her 96 year old grandmother. There were some important things she shared with me about the good death her grandmother had and the comfort she received from that experience. The first was...
Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most common health problems people face in their seventies and eighties. However, did you know you can take certain measures before such a diagnosis to ease such a transition for yourself, your family, and your caregivers? Let’s look...
