Fit & Well: National Healthcare Decisions Day

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — For this week’s Fit and Well Idaho report, National Healthcare Decisions Day is coming up on Tuesday, April 16th. National Healthcare Decisions Day is an annual initiative to encourage and empower people to begin or continue conversations about their wishes for care through the end of life.

The goal is to make the topic of advanced care planning accessible and approachable. Life is unpredictable and accidents and illnesses can happen at any time. It is important to consider and document your wishes in case you are ever incapacitated or unable to speak and advocate for yourself.

KMVT spoke with St. Luke’s Medical Center staff to learn more about advanced care planning. According to Chalee Giles, the best times to start a plan or to update your plan if you already have one is where your health is declining, your diagnosis, divorce, changes, or simply just every decade.

Anybody over the age of 18 should also consider advanced planning to ensure that their wishes are heard.

“In the U.S., only about one in three people actually have an advanced directive and most of those are patients that are 55 and older, and in Idaho its worse than that, it’s only like one in four, or one out of five,” said Giles.

For more information on how to start your advanced care planning regime, email St. Luke’s Medical Center’s Advanced Care Office at advancedcareplanning@slhs.org or call: 208-814-8785.

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