How Do We Begin Conversations About The Care We Want At The End of Life?

I am pleased to share the following resources with you. The following information was included in a blog entry made to the Arbor Hospice Blog by Arbor Hospice volunteer, Dennis Sparks. These resources can be very helpful in initiating important end of life conversations with loved ones, something I find to be very important.

If the content of daytime television talk shows is a guide, Americans are far more comfortable publicly discussing almost any aspect of their intimate lives than they are the irrefutable fact that they will die.

While we intellectually understand that we will not live forever, acknowledging that fact by talking about it with loved ones is nonetheless an incredibly difficult thing for most of us to do. It is almost as if we have a superstitious belief that if we don’t talk about it, it won’t’ happen.  

Yet, candid conversations with family members and close friends about the kind of care we wish to receive at the end of our lives may be one of the most valuable gifts we can give them.

And because that end sometimes comes suddenly and unexpectedly as well as from illness, these discussions are as important for 20-somethings as they are for older adults.

While we may know the value of such conversations, many of us are uncertain about how to initiate them and what to talk about once we do. That’s why I was pleased to discover that The Conversation Project offers resources to help initiate these important discussions.

The Conversation Project offers a free “Welcome to the Conversation Starter Kit,” which begins: “It’s not easy to talk about how you want the end of your life to be. But it’s one of the most important conversations you can have with your loved ones.”

Visit the Arbor Hospice Blog to continue reading Dennis Sparks’ blog post about The Conversation Project and other resources for initiating important advance care planning conversations.