Getting the best possible care that honors your goals and care choices is a lifelong journey. Now that you have started to make your personal plan with a Health Care Proxy and Personal Directive in the Getting Started Tool Kit, you can build on your planning discussions and revise and add planning documents as your health needs and choices change over time.

The Next Step Tool Kit helps you work in partnership with your care providers to build on your planning conversations and update your care plan to manage health needs and chronic illness, and live well with serious illness.

This tool kit is a step-by step guide to:

Step 1. Build on Your Conversations – from Simple to Serious Illness.

• “5 Things To Talk About” is a series of handy guides to help consumers and care providers have early and on-going conversations from simple to serious illness.
  • Consumer Conversation Guides 1-4
  • Care Provider Conversation Guides 1-4

Step 2. Update and Add Documents

• Make a plan with the 5 MA care planning documents.
  • Durable Power of Attorney, fact sheet
  • What is MOLST and CC/DNR? fact sheet
  • MOLST, Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatments  sample form
  • CC/DNR, Comfort Care/Do Not Resuscitate sample form

Step 3. Get Better Care to Manage Illness and Live Well

• Put your plan into action.
• Learn about specialized care in serious illness.
  • What is Palliative Care? fact sheet
  • Consumer and Care Provider Conversation Guide 4- Let’s Talk about Palliative Care.
  • What is Hospice Care? fact sheet

You can follow the steps above or start with whatever makes sense to you.

 

Download the Next Step Tool Kit for Consumers below.

View the Next Step Tool Kit Checklist, a step-by-step guide to get good care today and over your lifetime.