Five Wishes

In order to provide information about health care choices and to encourage kitchen table conversations about options in end-of-life care, Rainbow Hospice, Advocate Lutheran General Hospital and the Resurrection Health Care system came together to create the “Partnership of Hope,” an educational resource reaching out to faith communities, civic organizations, educators and health care providers in their service area. The Partnership of Hope introduces Five Wishes to the community as its kitchen table document.

Five Wishes is an advance directive document created by the Commission on Aging with Dignity, a private, nonprofit organization founded by Jim Towey in 1996. The document is a large step forward in encouraging lay discussion of end-of-life choices. The print is large and readable. The text avoids technical legal and medical language. In a gentle and non-threatening way, Five Wishes guides the process of making important health care decisions. It walks the individual through the process of designating an agent who would speak on his or her behalf in case of serious illness. It explains life-support treatment and allows the individual to express care preferences. When properly completed and witnessed, Five Wishes is a legally valid Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care and Living Will in thirty-three states and the District of Columbia, including Illinois.

The second half of the document offers important guidance to family, health care professionals, and pastoral care staff who wish to provide holistic care at the end-of-life. Five Wishes allows the individual to express his or her preferences for pain and symptom control and personal care. It also suggests to family and friends the ministry they can offer at the end-of-life, including prayer, touch, and simple presence.

Finally, Five Wishes touches the very heart of pastoral care, allowing the individual to speak of confession, forgiveness, reconciliation, hope, and healing. The final Wish also encourages the individual to add additional information for obituaries/eulogies, funeral or memorial planning, and organ donation. To receive a copy of the Five Wishes document, or to have a representative of the Partnership of Hope speak to your group, please call (847) 692-8884.

Five Wishes
www.agingwithdignity.org

My wish for:

1. The person I want to make care decisions for me when I can’t
2. The kind of medical treatment I want or don’t want
3. How comfortable I want to be
4. How I want people to treat me
5. What I want my loved ones to know