Advocacy Updates
April is Advance Care Planning Month with April 16th as National Healthcare Decisions Day.
Advance Care Planning is where you talk about, decide, and write down your wishes for medical care. We do this in case, one day, you can’t communicate to your medical providers about your care wishes. In Minnesota, the papers where you write these wishes down is called a health care directive. Health care directives are sometimes also referred to as a “living will” or “health care power of attorney.”
In the Office of Ombudsman for Long-Term Care (OOLTC) our job is to advocate for adults needing or getting long-term care. OOLTC focuses on person-directed living that respects people’s values and preferences and works to preserve individual rights. The Minnesota Health Care Bill of Rights guarantees that patients have the right to participate in the planning of their health care. Thinking ahead about your health care wishes and designating a health care decision maker is one way to participate in your health care.
The best way you can make sure your medical wishes are followed is to fill out a health care directive. Writing down what you want can be a gift to the people around you if something bad ever happens. You may want to complete the long form which assigns a legal decision maker as well as outlines what your preferences are. Remember - the legal decision maker should only be in charge of making health care decisions for you if you can't make them for yourself.
There is no specific required form to use to create a health care directive. You can get a copy from your medical provider/clinic or fill one out on your own. We offer a few different versions of a health care directive form in this gov.delivery.
Next steps:
- If you already have one, review it to be sure it still reflects your wishes. You may create a new one if the old one no longer reflects your current wishes.
- Give a copy of your health care directive to:
- Your health care system or clinic
- Your health care agent(s)
- Optional: when you renew your Minnesota ID or drivers license you may answer “Yes” to Question #1 to indicate you have a health care directive
Additional links:
Minnesota Department of Health Advanced Care Planning: https://www.health.state.mn.us/people/palliative/advcareplan.html
PDF of statutory form: https://www.ag.state.mn.us/consumer/handbooks/probate/HealtCareDir.pdf
Non-profit Honoring Choices: https://www.honoringchoices.org/
University of Minnesota Extension https://extension.umn.edu/health-care/minnesota-health-care-directive-planning-toolkit
Statute that has suggested form: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/145C.16
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