Your Health Care. Your Choice.
Every person can make a plan for good care today and over your lifetime.
Starting at 18 years old, you can make your own health care choices and write down your care choices and preferences in a personal care plan. Your care plan helps you take control of your health care and work in partnership with your doctors and care professionals to get the care you want today and everyday over your lifetime.
A good place to start to make your care plan is by choosing a trusted person to be your Health Care Agent and completing a Health Care Proxy document.
- If you get sick and cannot make health care decisions yourself — even for a short time while you get better — your Health Care Agent can step in with the legal power to talk with your doctors and make decisions to get you the care you want. You appoint your Health Care Agent in a Health Care Proxy document, available in 16 languages.
- Not able to choose an Health Care Agent? That's Ok. Just start to make your plan with a document called a Personal Directive (Living Will). You can write down your instructions for care and share with your doctors.
To Make Your Own Plan: Download the Getting Started Tool Kit below or go to the Quick Start page.
Who's Your Agent?® Program
Who is Your Agent? is our structured approach to health care planning to help adults make their own personal plan. Start with a simple conversation using the Getting Started Tool Kit. Build on your conversations- from simple to serious illness- using the Next Step Tool Kit.
Getting Started Tool Kit
Start with a simple conversation to choose a Health Care Agent and complete a Health Care Proxy. Write down your care preferences in a Personal Directive (Living Will).
1. Who's Your Agent?
Choose a Health Care Agent in a Health Care Proxy.
2. What Matters to Me?
Write down your care choices in a Personal Directive (Living Will).
3. Talk About Your Care.
Use our handy conversation guide to put your plan into action.
You can make your personal plan with the Getting Started Tool Kit- it's as easy as 1-2-3.! This step-by-step guide helps you start a simple conversation to:
- Step 1- Choose a trusted person as your Health Care Agent, and appoint your Agent in a document called a Health Care Proxy;
- Not able to choose a Health Care Agent? That's OK. Just start with Step 2;
- Step 2- Talk with your family and important people about how you want to be care for and write down your instructions in a document called a Personal Directive (Living Will);
- Step 3- Talk with your health care providers to put your plan into action to get care that right's for you today and over your lifetime.
The tool kit includes a free downloadable documents and tools:
- MA Health Care Proxy form (available in 15 languages),
- MA Personal Directive (Living Will) form;
- I Have a Health Care Proxy wallet card;
- A handy conversation guide to Start a Simple Conversation To Stay Well.
Next StepsTool Kit
Build on your planning conversations — from simple to serious illness — to update your plan for good care over your lifetime.
1. Build on Your Conversations
Use our handy conversation guides to get the best possible care as your health needs and care preferences change.
2. Update & Add Planning Documents
Update your written plan and add new documents to communicate your goals and care choices.
3. Get Better Care that Honors Your Choices
Get the kind of care you want to manage chronic illness and live well with serious illness.
The Next Step Tool Kit helps you build on your planning conversations with your health care providers using the handy conversation guides, update and add to your personal care plan, and work with your care providers to get care that's right for you.
- Step 1- Use our Consumer Conversation Guides Series to talk with your care providers and have conversations from simple to simple to serious illness.
- Care Providers can use the Care Provider Conversation Guide Series which mirrors the consumer conversation guides;
- Step 2- Update and add to your personal plan.
- Download information about a Durable Power of Attorney, Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST), and Comfort Care/Do Not Resuscitate Order (CC/DNR);
- Step 3- Put you plan into action to manage chronic illness and live well with serious illness.
Get Help from the Honoring Choices Partners
An important part of our mission is to directly support all health care providers, community professionals, faith-based and advocacy groups as Honoring Choices Partners, to engage adults in conversations and help connect adults to care in their communities.
The Honoring Choices MA Partners is a voluntary, shared leadership network of hundreds of health care providers, local community organizations, state and membership organizations. All Partners can use our proven Who's Your Agent? Program, a structured approach to health care planning, which includes staff training and useful tool kits. Our shared leadership mission is helping adults get equal access to care planning information, in order to standardize early and on-going planning conversations and improve access to timely, equitable care. Honoring Choices does not refer or recommend any one Partner. Consumers choose what information and services are right for them.
Want to become a Partner? Come join us. It's no cost. We tailor our program to support your organizational mission. Read about the Who's Your Agent? Program for Care Providers & Professionals here.
Meet the Partners
Get Help from the Community Partners
Consumers: Our Community Partners use the Who's Your Agent? Program to help adults start a simple conversation to make a plan, and can often connect to care in your community. Find a Community Partner near you in one of our seven MA regions.
Alliance Partners
Our Alliance Partners are statewide & national groups who use the Who's Your Agent? Program to train staff to confidently engage adults in conversations, help adults make a plan, and connect to local resources. We work on joint projects for systems change.
Consumer Health Equity Advisory Group
Our Consumer Health Equity Advisory Group, brings together individuals, consumer groups & advocates to elevate the consumer voice and drive the agenda for meaningful program and policy change. Everyone is welcome!
New England Collective
Our New England Healthy Living Collective are leaders in 6 states providing state-specific planning documents and working to improve cross-state care and honoring care choices no matter where you live or travel.
Transform Health Care Planning.
Advance Healthy Equity.
Honoring Choices Massachusetts (HCM) is changing the way we engage in health care planning as a process to get good care TODAY and everyday over your lifetime. Our Who's Your Agent? Program, a structured approach to health care planning based on Massachusetts law, recognizes the right of every individual to direct their care decisions, regardless of age, race, culture, health condition or range of abilities to make decisions.
Every adult, with or without support, can start a simple conversation to express their care choices and preferences with the Getting Started Tool Kit. When ready, adults can proceed at their own pace to build on their conversations with the Next Steps Tool Kit, to help manage changing health needs and chronic illness and live well with serious illness. Both consumers and care providers use the Who's Your Agent? Program's tool kits and conversation guides for effective conversations to help ensure adults can access care that honors their goals and care choices to improve everyday health outcomes and plan for future care.
Guided by diverse consumer voices and the collective expertise of the HCM Partners, we are taking action to transform the planning process to improve health outcomes, address policies and programs to advance health equity, and build more responsive care delivery systems. Here's are some of our exciting initiatives-
- Lifetime Health Care Planning Roadmap: A Guide to Planning at Every Phase of Health
- A trusted source of curated information based on MA law, which includes free downloadable tools and links to useful resources.
- Consumer Health Equity Advisory Group
- Elevating the consumer voice to help set the agenda for meaningful change. Everyone is welcome!
- Living Well with Serious Illness and Complex Care Needs
- A process & planning tools for effective conversations; the MOLST form; update on the POLST Program.
- Guardianship and Alternatives
- 5 Point Checklist to Assess Alternatives and Individual supports
Click on the blue buttons below to read more!