April 5, 2023 – An estimated 80% of adult Wisconsin residents have not completed an advance directive documenting their preferences about issues surrounding health care decisions.
Advance care planning is as important as ever. Are you one of the 80%? Do you have ideas about what you would like to happen regarding health care decisions for yourself? But do your family members know your wishes? Are your clients prepared?
Start the Conversation
Starting April 12 and continuing to April 24, use this link to gain access to the free PDF from the State Bar:
A Gift to Your Family: Planning Ahead for Future Health Needs, a health care decisions planning guide, also available at
wisbar.org/healthcare.
As it does each year, the State Bar is offering this guide at no cost in honor of
National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) on April 16, 2023. The annual initiative serves as a reminder to let your family know your wishes about advance care planning. Use this event to talk to your family and clients about their needs as well.
Under Wisconsin law, competent adults have the right to control decisions about their future medical care, including the right to accept or refuse treatment and the right to be an organ and tissue donor.
A Gift to Your Family offers practical insights on a range of issues surrounding health care decisions, such as power of attorney for health care, living wills, and organ and tissue donation. The guide also includes state forms to help people put their wishes in writing.
Planning Guide PDF Available Free April 12-24
Wisconsin is participating in this annual initiative, and with
Gov. Tony Evers's proclamation, the State Bar of Wisconsin honors the event of the week of April 16-23 by providing members and the public free access to its end-of-life planning tool which can be found at wisbar.org/healthcare through April 24, 2023.
“Due to accidents or illness, three out of four people will be unable to make some or all of their medical decisions at the end of life,” said attorney Ben Adams, advisor to the State Bar's Elder Law & Special Needs Section board of directors. “If this happens to you, doctors need to know who can make decisions for you.”
Adams said that a medical decision-maker needs to know what a person’s health care goals and values are in order to make informed decisions on the patient’s behalf.
“If you haven’t named someone in a health care power of attorney document and talked with that person, and you become incapacitated or incompetent, then it’s likely that a court proceeding will be needed to appoint a medical decision-maker for you,” Adams said. “But the court process can be avoided in most cases if you do advance care planning.”
The State Bar has distributed more than 500,000 print planning guides to hospitals, clinics, lawyers, and the public. The 24-page
A Gift to Your Family, now in its eighth edition, initially was produced in 2000 through a partnership with the Wisconsin Hospital Association, the Wisconsin Medical Society, and Gunderson Lutheran Medical Center.
How to Order
A Gift to Your Family in Print
To order the print guide for family, friends, or clients,
visit WisBar.org’s Marketplace for the guide. The cost is $4 for State Bar members and $5 for nonmembers. Discounts are available for large quantities.
Your Questions Answered – Live on Wisconsin Public Radio April 18
Tune in Tuesday, April 18, to hear more about end-of-life planning when elder law attorney Ben Adams of McCarty Law, LLP, Appleton, appears on Wisconsin Public Radio’s (WPR)
Larry Meiller Show from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Adams appears with Dr. Lee Vogel, a physician and geriatrician with Fox Valley Family Medicine Residency in Wausau and executive director of Mosaic Family Health in Appleton, who joins the discussion.
Join Larry, Ben, and Lee to hear tips and a discussion – and get answers to your own questions. Listen live on WPR's Ideas Network stations or on the
WPR website.
If you miss the broadcast, you can find it on the Larry Meiller Show
Archives.
