Why Focus on Advance Care Planning?
A better health care system would help patients make the hard decisions early and ensure their wishes are fulfilled.
Advance Care Planning (ACP) allows individuals to share and document their wishes surrounding serious illness, incapacitation, and end of life. One of the most prevalent misconceptions is that ACP is only necessary for those with a life limiting condition. ACP is available to everyone, regardless of their condition.
Today, many individuals with advanced illness receive care that is fragmented, uncoordinated, or inadequate to meet their growing needs and personal wishes. Ensuring that care plans align with patient needs and wishes is the purpose of ACP.
CIVHC convenes a monthly ACP Workgroup designed to help providers, clinicians, social workers, and others to increase awareness of ACP and share best practices across sectors. For more information, please contact CIVHC at info@civhc.org.
Involvement in the ACP Workgroup includes:
- Sharing community and organizational ACP work that highlights project experiences, lessons learned, and potential opportunities for best practice replication across the state.
- Identifying and engaging key stakeholders and organizations not currently active in ACP, disseminating shared objectives and enabling education.
- Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment - Video: Advance Care Planning
- Colorado Care Planning - Aims to help Coloradans find information for future medical planning, including choosing a medical decision maker.
- The Conversation Project - The Conversation Project's mission is to foster meaningful and effective conversations about end-of-life care. They provider resources and education to start, have and document conversations around advance care planning.
- Colorado Hospital Association Decisions Guide - CHA is the leading voice of the Colorado hospital and health system community. Representing more than 100 hospitals and health systems throughout the state, CHA serves as a trusted, credible and reliable resource on health issues, hospital data and trends for its members, media, policymakers and the general public.
- The Colorado Cancer Coalition is a statewide collaborative working to eliminate the burden of cancer in Colorado.
- Caring Connections - Offers support to patients and families including information on advance care planning and downloadable state-specific advance directives.
- Pinnacle Health Provider Training - Coding Advance Care Planning
National Healthcare Decisions Day
On April 16th, 2024 CIVHC is one of many organizations participating in National Health Care Decisions Day.
Each year, we mark this day to empower the public and providers to engage in important conversations around Advance Care Planning.
Healthcare Decision Day