National Healthcare Decisions Day:

Celebrated on April 16th, the National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) aims to educate the general public and health care professionals about planning and preparing for future healthcare decisions.

Twitter Hashtags:

#NationalHealthCareDecisionsDay

#HealthCareDecisionsDay

Why National Healthcare Decisions Day?

It’s a universal knowledge that life is unpredictable. As finite beings that cannot foresee the future, the best option we have is to be prepared for the worst without being weighed down by anxiety of the future. The sudden ailment of a loved one or friend can catch us off guard at any point in time. When the person is incapacitated to make decisions of their own, their families and loved ones often struggle to make the right healthcare decisions for them. The best thing we can do for ourselves and our loved one is to plan and be prepared for the future.

The National healthcare decisions day is a great initiative that urges all adults to plan ahead of a health care emergency. It’s a collective effort of organizations at the national, state, and community levels. This collective effort is channeled to provide them access to information and opportunities to make healthcare decisions and to officially file them. The focus is mainly on advanced care planning by enabling people to be proactive in expressing their wishes and respecting and implementing those decisions in case of a future incident.

Being in charge of your health care decisions is beneficial in several ways. Not only does it bring us a sense of peace but also gives direction to our loved ones and caregivers. The health care decisions that have been expressed by an individual and written down officially will serve as the instruction for future events and take off the onus of decision-making from the family and loved ones. They are not left guessing what you might have wanted and can rest assured that they have fulfilled your desires by following the instructions that you have provided through the complete advanced directive.

The mission is to create awareness regarding the importance of advanced healthcare planning by educating both the health care providers and the general public and empowering them to express their health care decisions to facilitate and determine the course of action in the future. These initiatives also emphasize that these decisions should begin with an open conversation followed by contacting a suitable agent. Various community resources are made available on the official NHDD site for Advance Care Directives including the conversation starter kit and details on Prepare your Care’s resources for medical decisions.

The Conversation Project is an initiative to enable people to express their wishes for health care to the end of their lives. It encourages people to start those seemingly difficult conversations at home with their loved ones. In association with The Conversation Project, NHDD entails 50-state nationwide annual programs that are conducted and coordinated as both state and local events with the unanimous support of the national media and educational campaigns. Through these efforts, clear-cut, factual, and condensed information is disseminated along with the provision of various tools.

This day brings together various healthcare organizations and providers, communities, and religious institutions to work together by allowing them to independently work for the benefit of families and patients. The goal is to make the conversation of healthcare-decision inescapable by popularizing it through the media even to the point that you cannot have any conversation even with your lawyer or physician without touching upon the topic on this day.

If you are wondering where to start your journey, you can begin by utilizing the numerous resources and programs that guide you through the entire process. These decisions that you make today will ensure you and your family a better tomorrow.

How Can We Observe National Healthcare Decisions Day:

• Having Vital Conversations

The first step is to have those vital conversations about your healthcare decisions with your family and prepare yourself and your family for it.

• Tune Into Various Resources

To help you begin the journey you can access several websites such as the NHDD, Five wishes.org, or utilize the conversation starter kit.

• Join The Movement

Voice your support for the day by posting the resources and using #NationalHealthCareDecisionsDay and #HealthCareDecisionsDay.

Interesting Facts On National Healthcare Decisions Day:

Few Facts Related To National Healthcare Decisions Day

• Nathan Kottkamp the founder of NHDD is part of the law firm, McguireWoodsLLP
• The Conversation Project is the managing body for the NHHD events and regulates its finances and structure, as of June 2016.
• Five wishes are one of the most popular Advance Directive which encompasses personal, emotional, and spiritual concerns in addition to healthcare decisions
• According to the conversation Project national Survey conducted in 2018, it is estimated that only 32% of the Americans have discussed their end-of-life care wishes even when 92% of the Americans agree that it is an important factor to discuss.

History Of National Healthcare Decisions Day:

The NHDD was created in 2008 by a health care lawyer, Nathan Kottkamp from Virginia to create awareness regarding advance directives and healthcare decisions.