Events

National Healthcare Decisions Day: April 16

Advance Care Planning helps individuals think intentionally about their beliefs and what gives their life meaning and beauty. Faith and spirituality are often such sources of meaning for our lives. The process of Advance Care Planning helps us articulate what is most important and provides a firm foundation for our care plan and goals moving forward. Legal documents, such as an Advanced Directive, can turn this invaluable conversation and process into a sense of certainty and clarity moving forward. These conversations and documents also empower people to make their decisions and preferences known ahead of time, easing the burden of decision making on their loved ones when they are no longer able to speak for themselves.

Advance Care Planning also offers individuals and their loved ones the opportunity to live out each and every day of their lives rooted in the very image of God that we are each formed in, as well as the values of each unique, beloved individual. Many sacred moments happen around the final bedside as loved ones hold vigil and share stories about a person’s life, love, and legacy that will live on after their death. Even in the midst of grief and loss, a sense of gratitude exists when we are able to carry out a person’s wishes and values, knowing for certain what they would have wanted.

Advance Care Planning is a gift we can give to our loved ones—it is an offering of peace of mind that helps brings comfort amidst some of the “what ifs” that come with the processes of illness, death, and grieving. Having “the conversation” about health care preferences near the end of life is a way to put your faith-informed values into action.

Article contributed by: By Ashley Whitaker and Alyson Capp