National Healthcare Decisions Day

National Healthcare Decisions Day

National Healthcare Decisions Day inspires, educates and empowers the public and providers to discuss advance care planning. This event takes place on April 16 to educate the general public. NHDD is an initiative to encourage patients to express their wishes regarding healthcare. And for providers and facilities to respect those wishes, whatever they may be. The color that represents National Healthcare Decisions Day is blue.

About National Healthcare Decisions Day

We can’t plan for everything. But we can talk about what is most important to us in our life, and in our health care. Discussions most often take place with those who matter most. For example, talking with the important people in our life can bring us closer together. It also helps us create the foundation of a care plan that’s right for you. It helps design a plan that will be available when the need arises.

It’s important to talk about your wishes for care through the end of life. That way, those wishes can be understood and respected. It’s also important to choose what’s known as a health care proxy. A proxy or health care advocate is someone who makes health care decisions on your behalf if you became unable to voice those decisions yourself.

Overview of National Decisions Healthcare Day

NHDD was founded in 2008 by Nathan Kottkamp, a Virginia-based health care lawyer. The purpose was to provide clear, concise, and consistent information on healthcare decision-making to both the public and providers/facilities through the widespread availability and dissemination of simple, free, and uniform tools (not just forms) to guide the process.

The Purpose of Including Others in Decision-Making

NHDD is a series of independent events held across the country. It is supported by a national media and public education campaign. In all respects, NHDD is inclusive and brings a variety of players in the larger healthcare, legal, and religious community together to work on a common project. This is for the benefit of patients, families, and providers. A key goal of NHDD is to demystify healthcare decision-making. And to make the topic of advance care planning inescapable. Among other things, NHDD helps people understand that advance healthcare decision-making includes much more than a living will. Instead, it is a process that should focus first on the conversation and choosing an agent.

The Conversation Project

The Conversation Project® is dedicated to helping people talk about their wishes for care through the end of life. It is an initiative of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a not-for-profit organization that is a leader in health and health care improvement worldwide.

The Conversation Project is a public engagement initiative with a goal that is both simple and transformative. The goal is to help everyone talk about their wishes for care through the end of life, so those wishes can be understood and respected.

Together we can make these difficult conversations easier. We can make sure that our own wishes, and those of the people who matter most to us (our loved ones, friends, chosen family), are both understood and respected.