health & wellness Make Your Healthcare Wishes Known with an Advance Care Plan

Sponsored by Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center

“I’m not old.”

“I’m not sick.”

“I don’t want to upset my family by talking about this.” Do any of these statements sound familiar? If you’ve ever thought about creating an Advance Care Plan but keep putting it off, this article is designed to help you act. If you’re 18 or older and healthy, now is the ideal time to create an Advance Care Plan and it may be easier than you realize.

What is an Advance Care Plan?

“An advance care plan protects your rights to make decisions about your own medical care, even when you are too sick or injured to make your wishes known,” says Rev. Dr. Ruth Anne Sawyer, Chaplaincy Services and Decedent Affairs and Ethics Consultant at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center.

“Advance care planning is for everyone. At any age, a medical crisis could leave you unable to communicate your own health care decisions. Planning now for your future health care can help ensure you get the medical care you want and that someone you trust will be there to make decisions for you.”

Your Advance Care Plan details the type of medical treatments that you do and do not want. Even if you choose not to receive life prolonging treatment when you have a terminal condition, many medical treatments can still be provided to manage your symptoms, relieve pain, and provide support to you and your family.

Creating Your Own Advance Care Plan

Sentara and the Sentara Center for Healthcare Ethics are offering the community the opportunity to complete their Advance Care Plan (Advance Directive) and register it, free of charge, with our national Advance Directive Registry through the U.S. Living Will Registry. Wherever you go in the United States, your Advance Care Plan will be accessible by healthcare professionals when needed to guide your medical care if you are unable to communicate your wishes or make your own decisions.

Advance Care Plan (Advance Directive) documents can include your Living Will, which helps your health care team know what your wishes are, and your Medical Power of Attorney or Healthcare Agent, which is who you want to speak for you if you can't speak for yourself. You can appoint any adult 18 years of age or older to be your healthcare agent, including your spouse, your same-sex or domestic partner, an adult child, a family member, a friend, or any other adult you trust.

“A healthcare agent is an adult appointed by you to make healthcare decisions for you,” says Sawyer. “This person speaks for you only when you can no longer speak for yourself. This agent can be anyone you chose and does not have to be a family member.”

It is important to know an Advance Care Plan does not include a last will and testament or financial power of attorney.

“On paper, creating an Advanced Care Plan is a pretty simple process,” says Sawyer. “But emotionally, it can be hard to conceptualize our own mortalities. The documents can be filled out and witnessed, but a lawyer is not necessary. Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center offers a free service to our community with the U.S. Living Will Registry. This registry keeps your Advance Directive in their database so if you travel or go to another facility that does not have your records, that facility can pull your advance directive from the registry so you do not have to complete a new form. Once registered, you will receive an acknowledgement along with a wallet card and stickers for your ID cards that will alert medical professionals that you have an Advanced Care Plan on file and the 1-800 number so they may retrieve it.”

FREE Assistance Available

A free fillable form to create your own Advance Care Plan can be found on Sentara.com at sentara.com/ patientguide/advance-care-planning.aspx or sentara.com/ advancedirectives.

For Advanced Care Planning questions, to schedule a free individual or group appointment, or request a paper copy of the Advance Care Plan, please call the Chaplain’s office at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center at 703-523-0680, or email chaplainsdesk@sentara.com.