Winchester District Memorial Hospital is reminding everyone to be prepared for the chance you can’t make your own health care decisions.
Social Worker with the hospital Kealey Dunlop says they will be holding Advance Care Planning Seminars to encourage people to talk about what their wishes would be if they couldn’t make their own medical choices. The seminars encourage thinking about what your loved ones should know about your wishes or values, and who you’d like to make those calls.
According to Dunlop it is important that everyone have this talk but the seminar might be especially useful for someone who knows they’re going to be making these decisions for someone else. She says it can be a difficult topic to bring up but the seminars include tips on how to make it easier.
April 16th is National Advance Care Planning Day and the hospital will host an event in the lobby. Dunlop says there will be refreshments and a raffle but it will mostly be informative. There will be Power of Attorney packages available for pick-up to ensure residents are legally and properly completing the process.
The next advanced care planning seminar is on April 19th from 6-8pm at WDMH. Dunlop finished by saying you never know what can happen, or when you’ll have to make these kinds of uncomfortable decisions.
Full details on the seminars can be found here.{ http://www.wdmh.on.ca/uploads/communications/ACP%202018%20Workshops.pdf }