Who Will Speak for You: Advance Care Planning and COVID-19

These are unprecedented times. With the COVID-19 pandemic, having an accessible health care plan if you are unable to speak for yourself is critical. Now more than ever, health care providers need guidance from patients and their families. Having a proactive conversation with your health care provider and those who matter most about your health care values and wishes before an emergency happens can help alleviate the significant stress that comes from making uninformed choices.

This process of planning ahead is called advance care planning. Advance care planning is identifying and writing down what type of health care you would want and naming a person (called a health care agent) who can speak for you if you are unable to speak for yourself. Without an advance care plan or a health care agent, loved ones and doctors may make decisions that don’t reflect your wishes.

Voice Your Choice is a community-based program of the Nexus Montgomery Regional Partnership led by JSSA. The program offers free trainings and webinars that provide a step-by-step process to support you in identifying a health care agent and completing a plan to make your wishes known in advance of a serious illness or emergency. Voice Your Choice also provides access to a free online tool to make it easy to complete an advance care plan and available in an emergency.

For more information about advance care planning and completing an advance care plan, please visit VoiceYourChoice.org.