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Monthly Newsletter
July 2019
Featured Event

Coventry Woods Apartments, April 2019
Community Resource Fair
Our staff and volunteers frequently attend resource fairs throughout the community. These opportunities allow us to connect with those who might not otherwise hear about or have access to Advance Care Planning services. Volunteers help us spread the word in the community by attending these fairs and representing Making Choices Michigan.
 
This month we say farewell to Leah, a dedicated volunteer
facilitator (pictured above with MCM Community Coordinator,
Carol Robinson) who is moving out of the area. Leah tirelessly advocated for and assisted individuals through documenting
what meant most to them.
 
Thank you for your service, Leah! 

If interested in having Making Choices Michigan at your next Community Resource Fair, we'd love to hear from you.

“If you don’t know where you are going,
you’ll end up somewhere else.”  -Yogi Berra

To many, summer means baseball! Yogi Berra had the right idea when he talked about planning…in his own unique style, of course. But Yogi had it right. If you don’t plan now about who will speak for you if you can’t speak for yourself, and if you don’t tell “your person” (patient advocate) what is important for you to live life well, you may end up exactly where you do not want to be.

Contact us for an appointment today. We are happy to meet with you, and “your people” and help you chart the course. Play ball!!
Upcoming Events
First Steps Advance Care Planning
Facilitator Training

Friday, August 9, 2019
8 AM to 4:30 PM
Grand Rapids, Michigan
For questions regarding our upcoming training, please contact:
"It's About the Conversation"
Free & open to the public


Wednesday, August 28, 2019
1 PM to 2:30 PM

at

Spectrum Healthier Communities
665 Seward Ave NW, Suite 110
Grand Rapids, MI 49504

No one can predict when a sudden illness or accident may leave you unable to make personal healthcare decisions. Who would speak for you if you could not speak for yourself? Would they know what to say about what medical treatment you would, or would not want? Would they follow your preferences regarding other aspects of your care?

  • What is Advance Care Planning (ACP)?
  • How do I choose an effective Patient Advocate?
  • Patient Advocate Boot Camp: How to effectively speak on someone’s behalf.
  • Does my existing Advance Directive meet my needs (Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare)?
  • Steps to creating an effective Advance Directive.
  • How to easily make your Advance Directive available to hospitals.

Interested in exploring how you can volunteer with MCM?


Did You Know?

Language Matters!
As a certified hospice and palliative care nurse, nothing “trips my trigger” like hearing “So and so has decided to stop medical treatment and instead receive comfort care.” While the phrase sounds kind and compassionate, it misleads the public about the important skill set that hospice and palliative care clinicians possess to alleviate troubling symptoms at end of life. It also implies that a person has to make a choice between expert symptom management in advanced illness (physical, psychological, social, and spiritual) or life-extending therapies. Palliative care is expert symptom management! If you have been confused about the words palliative care, remember this: “all hospice patients need palliative care, but not all palliative care patients need hospice.” At MCM, we include a question on our Advance Directive about whether or not the person would like to receive hospice care if they know they are in the last months of life. Still confused about hospice and palliative care?

Call us, one of your local hospices, or learn more at the National Hospice & Palliative Care website:


-Carol Robinson DNP, MS, BSN, RN CHPN ®
MCM Community Coordinator
Our Impact
Thanks to our partners around the state who register their patient and client Advance Directives to Great Lakes Health Connect, we now have over 60,000 documents available in the Community Health Record! Registering these documents makes them available (only as appropriate) to a state-wide network of hospitals, primary, specialty, and allied care organizations, ensuring that healthcare providers will have immediate access to their patient's wishes.
Click here to learn more about registering your patient and client documents or to schedule your ACP appointment today!
Making Choices Michigan | Office: (616) 421-4840 | MakingChoicesMichigan.org