Advance Care Planning

Advance Care Planning Guides

• Advance Care Planning Booklet
  
  This is a comprehensive resource that describes the advance care planning process, outlines the document, helps an individual clarify values and beliefs, choose a health care agent or spokesperson, understand life-sustaining treatment, and discuss practical issues including accessibility of documents and the need to review and update them periodically. It is available in English and Spanish.
  
  
  • Excellus BCBS English and Spanish Booklets
    
  • Univera (WNY) English and Spanish  Booklets
    
    
• Advance Care Planning Brochure
  
  
  • Excellus BCBS
    
  • Univera (WNY)
    
    
• Healthwise  
  
  Health Wise is a Web site that provides interactive decision support tools and reliable medical facts that are available to help individuals make end of life care decisions.
  
  
• Planning Your Health Care in Advance
  
  Created by New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer in 2005, this document is a guide to advance care planning in New York State. It explains why advance care planning should be done, what legal issues are involved, and how to fill out all of the right forms for your wishes to be honored in New York State as a resident. Copies of all of the state forms are included, and can be printed and completed. At the end of the document there is a list of resources specifically for NYS residents.
  
  
• Do Your Proxy.org  
  
  Is a free on-line tool that allows you to create, print and save a Health Care Proxy and Living Will.
  
  
• Respecting Choices
  
  Describes a system-based approach to patient-centered advance care planning.
  
  
• New York State Bar Association Pamphlet on Living Wills and Health Care Proxies
  

Advance Care Planning Forms

• Health Care Proxy
  • Health Care Proxy: Appointing Your Health Care Agent in New York State
    
    This is a website with the information that must be completed to designate a Health Care Proxy in New York State. There are a number of different sections that should be read through first, and the New York State form to designate a health care proxy is at the end. This is also available as a .pdf file in English and Spanish, as well as several other languages:
    
    English: http://www.health.state.ny.us/forms/doh-1430.pdf
    Spanish: http://www.health.state.ny.us/forms/doh-1431.pdf
    Chinese: http://www.health.state.ny.us/forms/doh-1401.pdf
    Russian: http://www.health.state.ny.us/forms/doh-1402.pdf
    
    
• Living Will
  
  
  • New York State Living Will
    
    
• Other State-Specific Forms
  
  
  • Caring Connections
    This website has extensive information, including state-spevific advance directives.
    
    
• Organ Donation
  
  
  • Information about organ donation and an Organ Donation Form
  • Register your intent to be an organ donor via the New York Donor Registry

Actionable Medical Orders

Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Order

• FAQs about DNRs in New York State
  This website is devoted to explaining New York State laws about DNR.
• What does DNR Mean?
  This website holds information put out by the New York State Department of Health about what a DNR order is, explains the differences between in-hospital and out-of-hospital DNR, and explains the role of the health care agent.
  
  This document is also available as a brochure here: http://www.health.state.ny.us/publications/4182.pdf.
• New York State DNR Form
  
  This is the New York State “Non-Hospital DNR Form” which must be filled out for DNR orders to be followed by Emergency Medical Services outside of a hospital setting, such as in a person’s home.
  
  See the MOLST Community Pilot:
  Patients & Families
  Professionals

MOLST

• MOLST
  
  Patients & Families
  Professionals
• "Hard Choices for Loving People"
  
  “Hard Choices for Loving People” is a published book regarding end-of-life treatment. It is available for purchase, and is also available full-text on the website. The text is also available in Spanish.

POLST and Other POLST Paradigm Programs

• POLST
  
  This website educates people about the POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) program, based in Oregon. The site also instructs people on how to complete a POLST form. There is information about “POLST Paradigm Programs” and information and contact information is available for those programs in every state where they exist.
• West Virginia's POST & Center for End-of-Life Care
  
  Information on West Virginia's POLST Paradigm Program.
• Washington State's POLST
  
  Information on Washington State's POLST Paradigm Program.