Easing Your Passage

With advance directives, you will make decisions now that will be honored sometime in the future when you can’t make them. When done while you are well, these are hypothetical issues that hold little emotion for both you and your family. As you approach the end of your life they become very real and emotional. You will probably find that your priorities for care during the end of your life are quite different.

There are numerous things to consider that range from stopping all treatments and accepting only comfort care to choosing to die at home surrounded by your family. In this section, we will go over some of these options to make you aware of them and perhaps help you to decide. The most important thing, as you will see, there is lots of support available to help you.

Other important components of end-of-life care include:

• Effective communication between you, your caregivers/family, and your healthcare providers;
• Healthcare that meets your expectations, includes your preferences and involves you in decision-making;
• Healthcare that stresses dignity and quality of life over avoiding/delaying death;
• Support for your family/caregivers.