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AccentCare Hospice San Diego: EOLCCA Refresher

by | Feb 23, 2023

End of Life Choices California (EOLCCA) Refresher

This is an in-service event for AccentCare social workers, RNs, LPNs, support and administrative staffs and others.

Representatives from EOLCCA will provide the latest information on the services provided by this organization whose goal is to help ensure that people are able to receive the information and support they need to advocate for and experience the death they wish. Key topics will include recent changes to the California End of Life Option Act; legal options one has to make an informed decision at the end of life–including, but not limited to, medical aid in dying (MAiD); and seeking opportunities to collaborate with hospice on supporting those nearing the end of life to achieve the type of death they desire.

For additional information regarding the presentation, please contact Lynne Calkins at 760-632-8029.

CareDimensions: End of Life Choices California (EOLCCA)

by | Feb 23, 2023

This informative, in-person presentation by Lynne Calkins, a Founding Director of EOLCCA, will introduce you to the services provided by this organization whose goal is to help ensure that people are able to receive the information and support they need to advocate for and experience the death they wish. Key topics will include the California End of Life Option Act; as well as all the legal options one has to make an informed decision at the end of life–including, but not limited to, medical aid in dying (MAiD).

For additional information regarding the presentation, please contact Lynne Calkins at 760-632-8029.

Making a Good Law Better

by | May 3, 2021 | Opinion


We are happy to share the following op-ed submission written by Board member Fran Johns who recently sent it to the San Francisco Chronicle.  It has yet to be published, but it is well worth sharing with our readers now.  EOLCCA is very supportive of these changes in the current law and applaud our California lawmakers for spearheading this effort.

Senator Eggman’s Amendment

The California Legislature is facing a rare opportunity: making a very good law better. Senator Susan Eggman’s SB380 amendment to the California End of Life Option Act will do precisely that. Among other provisions, the amendment would reduce the 15-day waiting period to 48 hours.  This waiting period, along with the requirement for a second “attestation” document, has turned out to be one of the flaws of the End of Life Option Act. Because many people put off invoking the law until their final weeks, these provisions became a cruel reality – lives ended in agony before relief could be secured.

CA State Capitol

 

Those of us who have worked with terminally ill individuals, particularly those wanting to explore all options available to Californians, know the End of Life Option Act to have been a blessing ever since it became effective in June of 2016. This new amendment will remove its flaws, giving some flexibility to dying patients and their physicians, and making the act more effective. As an octogenarian who doesn’t handle pain and suffering well and who is grateful for the California law, I am particularly anxious for that law to be as effective as possible.     

Opt Out

The End of Life Option Act (EOLOA) rightly allows for physicians to opt out if they have personal or religious convictions that make them unwilling to participate in medical aid in dying (MAID.) What has become clear, however, is that much of the law is dangerously murky. Healthcare facilities often deliberately obscure the fact that they will not allow participation in EOLA, and patients often discover, too late, that their physicians will not help them. When one is near death, it is not a good time to have to start looking for a new physician or healthcare facility in order to have one’s wishes honored. This new amendment will correct these flaws by requiring healthcare facilities to post their MAID policies on their websites and prohibit them from withholding truthful and accurate information from their patients.

If recent years have taught us anything it is the critical importance of truth and transparency. Truth and transparency are even more important to a dying person, along with autonomy, personal choice and the relief of unnecessary suffering. SB380 covers them all.

Co-authored by Democratic Senators Jim Cooper and Jim Wood, SB380 has the sponsorship of Democrats Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, Rob Bonta, Jim Frazier, Cristina Garcia and Luz Rivas; and has been endorsed by Death with Dignity National Center, Compassion and Choices and End of Life Choices California. It should be swiftly passed.

→ For more information or to get involved in the work to support this bill, go to Death With Dignity National Center and Compassion & Choices.

 

“When Mom Chooses to Die” presented by Hemlock Society of San Diego

by | Jan 1, 2020

Topic: End of Life Choices California

Presenter: Judith Schnack, MSN, RN, FNP
Client Advocate Volunteer with End of Life Choices California

Please join the Hemlock Society to hear from family members and friends who witnessed planned deaths under California’s End of Life Option Act. No one is obligated to use the prescription once you receive it. Hear from the wife of a man who had the prescription and was comforted by it, but in the end did not use it.  Judy Schnack, a volunteer with End of Life Choices California will also speak.