Brookings Health to Host Free Advance Care Planning Workshop

  • March 25, 2019

Brookings Health System will host, “Advance Care Planning: It’s About the Conversation,” free workshop on National Healthcare Decisions Day, Tuesday, April 16 at 12:30 p.m. in Brookings Hospital Conference Room A.

Advance care planning enables medical decision-making to honor a person’s wishes in the event he or she cannot voice their own decision. It provides caregivers, loved ones and health care providers the ability to know and respect the wishes and goals of an individual at the end-of-life.

“According to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 90% of people say talking with their loved ones about end-of-life care is important, but only 27% have actually done so. Not communicating wishes ahead of time may burden family members with tough decisions regarding a person’s end-of-life wishes,” said Case Management Director Lynne Thompson, RN. “This workshop leads people through the advance care planning process, encouraging them to talk with their loved ones and primary care provider and to receive the tools to create an advance directive, a documented plan of their wishes, to help relieve that burden.”

The advance care planning process is structured to promote patient autonomy by honoring treatment preferences and respecting patient rights. The patient’s identified and documented end-of-life goals through tools such as advance directives, living wills and durable powers of attorney help guide medical management and treatment, preventing unwanted or unnecessary care.

Social Worker Jillian Viessman, CSWPIP, a trained First Steps Advance Care Planning Facilitator from Avera Brookings Dialysis, will lead the workshop. She will guide attendees through the process of advance care planning, helping them to think about their health care values and goals; to consider health care choices they may need to make in the future; to talk about choices with their doctor and loved ones; and to write an advance directive.

Seating for the free workshop is limited. Registration may be made online at www.brookingshealth.org/Conversation. People may also download advance directive forms at www.brookingshealth.org/AdvanceDirectives.

The workshop is made possible by the Advance Care Planning: Quality Conversations in South Dakota coalition.

About Brookings Health System

Brookings Health System, located in Brookings, South Dakota, includes a 49-bed hospital, the 79-bed The Neighborhoods at Brookview nursing home, Brookhaven Estates senior living apartments, Yorkshire Eye Clinic, and medical clinics in Arlington, White and Volga, South Dakota. It is a non-profit, city-owned facility that offers the community a full range of inpatient, outpatient, emergency and extended care services. Brookings Hospital provides local access to doctors in Brookings and offers robotic da Vinci surgery and Mako robotic-arm assisted procedures, making it one of the premier rural community hospitals in South Dakota. For more information about the services offered at Brookings Health System, please call (605) 696-9000 or visit us on the Web at brookingshealth.org.