Fewer than 20 percent of adults living in Northeast Florida have contemplated and, more importantly, documented end-of-life wishes.
Changing that statistic is behind Honoring Choice Florida, a new program introduced to the public for the first time Monday by Susan Ponder-Stansel, CEO and president of Community Hospice Northeast Florida.
Speaking to the Rotary Club of Jacksonville, Ponder-Stansel said she first became aware of advance care planning about six years ago at a health conference in Wisconsin.
Community Hospice, the only solely not-for-profit palliative care provider among four in the region, is leading the effort in partnership with the health care community.
“Only 15 percent of people die peacefully at home in bed,” she said. “The rest die in a hospital and many are unable to speak for themselves.”
Advance planning allows a person to make important decisions about the end of their life. That takes the responsibility out of the hands of family members or health care providers.
The benefits include respect for a person’s wishes, reduced caregiver anxiety and reduction of unwanted medical treatments.
The program is the result of nearly three years of development and a small-scale pilot program that ended in January, said Ponder-Stansel.
Within a few years, more than 30 percent of North Florida’s population will be 50 or older and half of that group will be more than 70.
People are living longer and diseases that affect older people can mean patients face a long period of disability and long-term contact with the changing health care system.
Honoring Choices Florida will provide trained facilitators who can help people evaluate options, determine their wishes about future health care needs and prepare a document to provide clear and concise direction for family members and physicians.
Advance planning goes far beyond the “do not resuscitate” order already familiar to many people.
“It’s the most prevalent health care planning, but it says only what a person doesn’t want. Health care providers need to know what a patient wants,” said Ponder-Stansel.
The concept of hospice care and people making informed decisions about the end of their life has been a growing movement for decades.
Ponder-Stansel said 25 years ago, Community Hospice had a staff of about 35 and an average of 60 patients each day.
That has grown to more than 1,300 patients, a staff of about 900 and more than 1,000 volunteers.
More than 1,200 people filed advance care plans during the pilot program. Now, it’s time to take the effort to the nearly 400,000 people in Northeast Florida who will be 50 or older within a few years, said Ponder-Stansel.
The program will be presented at senior centers and long-term care facilities.
The business community will be asked to allow the program to be introduced to employees. The legal community, particularly estate planners and elder law practitioners, will be recruited for the effort.
Ponder-Stansel said in communities where advance planning has been available for years, as many as 90 percent of adults participate. She predicted it could take 10 years to achieve that level in Northeast Florida.
It’s a conversation that needs to begin.
“No one likes to talk about death, but we must,” said Ponder-Stansel. “Because we all will die.”
Details about the new program are available at honoringchoicesfl.com.
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