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Latest News: Community Hospice Schedules Workshop for National Healthcare Decisions Day JACKSONVILLE, Florida - Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, along with other national, state and community organizations, is leading a concerted effort to highlight the importance of advance healthcare decision-making — an effort that has culminated in the formal designation of April 16, 2008 as National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD). As a participating organization, Community Hospice will be conducting “Five Wishes® Living Will Workshop” on Wednesday, April 16, 2008, at 5:30 p.m. at the Baker County Council on Aging Adult Respite Center, 151 North 3rd Street in Macclenny. At the workshop Community Hospice professionals will provide information on the importance of advance care directives and completing the Five Wishes® living will. The workshop is free and open to the public. For reservations call 904.259.2223, extension 222. “As a result of National Healthcare Decisions Day, many more people in the Baker County community can be expected to have thoughtful conversations about their healthcare decisions and complete reliable advance directives to make their wishes known,” said Lynn Robbins, director of communications for Community Hospice. “Fewer families and healthcare providers will have to struggle with making difficult healthcare decisions in the absence of guidance from the patient, and healthcare providers and facilities will be better equipped to address advance healthcare planning issues before a crisis and better able to honor patient wishes when the time comes to do so.” In 1990, Congress passed the Patient Self-Determination Act, affirming the right of every citizen to set forth his or her future healthcare wishes in writing with an “advance directive.” Yet estimates suggest that fewer than 25 percent of all Americans have an advance directive. For an action that can be done without a lawyer — and for free — this figure is astonishingly low. The Five Wishes® living will is available free of charge through Community Hospice by visiting their website at communityhospice.com. The easy-to-use document provides the practical information, advice and legal tools needed to ensure your wishes and those of your loved ones will be respected. It is unique among all other living wills and health agent forms because it looks to all of a person's needs: medical, personal, emotional and spiritual. Five Wishes® also encourages discussing your wishes with your family and physician. There are no wrong answers when thinking about healthcare choices and completing an advance directive. Community Hospice encourages everyone to use April 16, 2008, to decide, discuss, and document your wishes, whatever they may be.
Established in 1979 as the first hospice program in Northeast Florida, Community Hospice of Northeast Florida helps nearly 1,000 patients live better with advanced illness each day in Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties, through the support of more than 700 employees and nearly 900 volunteers. The nonprofit organization has served more than 48,000 children and adults—at home, in long term care facilities, hospitals and through four inpatient centers throughout Jacksonville. Community Hospice Foundation generates philanthropic and community support for unfunded and under-funded programs, including indigent hospice care, Community PedsCare, a pediatric palliative and hospice program, and the programs and services of the Charles M. Neviaser Educational Institute. Care is available to all patients who need it, regardless of their ability to pay. ###
Contact: Doreen O'Toole Communications Specialist Community Hospice of Northeast Florida 904.407.6137
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