Helping Clients Produce Advance Directives That Work

If you will be near San Diego on May 4, be sure to attend this workshop.  



Most people know they should make an Advance Care Directive, yet many
do not. Why?  Here are two possible reasons.

1. They do not really understand
   the medical conditions and treatment choices. 


2. They are not convinced that
   completing these forms will be effective or even be available to clinicians
   when “that time comes”- if they no longer can speak for themselves. 

Dr. Stanley
Terman’s work over the past decade has strived to fulfill the promise of Advance
Directives. Briefly, Caring Advocates’ program makes Advance Care Panning easy,
effective, and comprehensive.

• Easy, so the program can be used by those who have low health
  literacy or who have already lost some cognitive functioning; for example, individuals
  who have mild cognitive impairment, early dementia, or clouded consciousness
  from high doses of pain-relieving medication. 


• Effective, so others WILL honor patients’ Last Wishes—both rapidly
  and with no, or minimal conflict.


• Comprehensive, to effectively reduce these two great end-of-life
  fears: unbearable, unending pain and suffering for days to weeks before dying,
  and being totally dependent and a enormous burden with no awareness of the
  sacrifice others are making while not being able to voice a complaint that they
  are in pain of suffering as they linger in Advanced Dementia for months to
  years.


• This workshop introduces a method to help your clients avoid such
  conditions so your clients can have peace of mind now that someday, their final
  transition will be timely and peaceful.

What are the Benefits?

1. Learn  how to help clients and their families  plan for a timely, peaceful transition — whether
   the diagnosis is Alzheimer’s, a related dementia, or another terminal illness.


2. Understand why “Natural
   Dying” can be a “compassionate choice” that respects the moral code of most
   (even conservative) religions.


3. Experience a direct, hands-on
   experience as you make a decision about each of the 48 symptoms, losses of
   function, unwanted behaviors, and conflicts with lifelong values—one at a time.
   Generate your own Natural Dying—Living Will. Learn about the various ways you
   can administer the illustrated “My Way Cards/ Natural Dying Living Will Cards”
   to your clients.


4. Learn what forms you can add
   to create an “ironclad strategy” to overcome a variety of challenges to Natural
   Dying so your clients can feel confident that others will honor their Known
   Wishes. Then, they will thus NOT need to consider premature dying to avoid
   future suffering and burdens in a state they would dread, if prolonged.


5. Offer this method to your
   past as well as your present clients—even if they have an Advance Directive—by
   learning how to evaluate the adequacy of their present forms to relieve pain
   and suffering and lingering in dementia. (Note: the Natural Dying—Living Will
   can be added to existing forms.) Be able to example the method’s great
   potential “return on investment”: Invest a modest amount of informed,
   structured, and diligent effort now to reduce a huge amount of suffering in the
   future.