Conversation before Crisis: Who will speak for you in an emergency

Megan Kelley knows the difficulties of making decisions for a loved one whose health has been impacted by a sickness or medical emergency.

In her years working in hospice, she has seen the impacts of sickness and death on families.

Therefore, she went to a family member to talk about their end of life wishes and who they wanted to be their voice during that process.

“You know, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be,” she said. “My loved one wanted to talk about it. When I brought it up, she was relieved. And when the time came, I knew that what I was doing was exactly what she wanted. It relieved a burden off of me.”

Kelley is the president of the Southwest Indiana Coalition for Advance Healthcare and works for Gentiva Hospice in Jasper. The group formed in January of 2015 to advocate for individuals to make their end of life wishes known through an advanced healthcare plan filed with their health provider and a family member.

Advanced Healthcare Planning empowers a person to have a voice in the decisions for the end of their life if they are incapacitated or otherwise unable to speak for themselves. It can be as thorough as the person wishes or as general. It can cover such things as the type of music one wishes to listen to as well as whether they want to be resuscitated or receive certain treatments.

Additionally, it alleviates some of the responsibility for family members making those hard decisions.

“When we receive a call to come to an emergency room, that is never the time to have a discussion like this or to try to make decisions,” Kelley said. “Our goal is conversation before crisis. We want to have a plan in place.”

Taking a cue from Ben Franklin’s quote about death and taxes, the first National HealthCare Decision Day is Saturday, April 16, close to the date taxes are usually due — Emancipation Day has pushed tax day to April 18 this year.

Inspired by a hospital operating in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Memorial Hospital has led the charge locally to create recognition of the difficult decisions that will have to be made if a family member falls ill or passes away unexpectedly.

In La Crosse, Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center advocated for advanced healthcare planning in the community. La Crosse’s population is around 51,000 people and since beginning the push for advanced planning, about 90 percent of them have filed advanced healthcare plans with their family or medical provider.

Memorial Hospital has implemented a program similar to Gundersen’s, but they also supported the creation of a group dedicated to community outreach. The Southwest Indiana Coalition for Advanced Care Planning formed in January of 2015 to begin efforts to reach out to the entire community.

Kelley, 37, began working with hospice when she was 21 and saw the importance of patients being able to have a voice in their care in their final days. “Since then, I have helped a lot of families through an expected loss. I have also helped families through unexpected losses,” she said. “I have seen how difficult and heartbreaking it is to have to make decisions for a family member who can not speak for themselves.”

Through advanced healthcare directives an individual can decide who will be their voice as well as include options for their care and end of life services. And, as people age, they should update their directive at least every five years, according to Kelley. “What we want in our 30s may be very different from what we want in our 90s,” she said.

The sooner they have the conversation, the better. The coalition now has over 40 individuals trained to facilitate these conversations with family members. Anyone seeking those services can contact the coalition through their Facebook Page or call 812-996-5232. More information is also available on the National Healthcare Decisions Day website.

“We aren’t promised tomorrow. We need to have the conversation today,” Kelley said. “We encourage all adults beginning at 18 years old to talk about what they would like to have happen to them if something were to happen.”