April 16 proclaimed Healthcare Decisions Day

April 16 has been proclaimed Healthcare Decisions Day in the city of Blaine.

Mayor Bonnie Onyon made the proclamation at the March 11 city council meeting.

In making the proclamation, Onyon noted that only 24 percent of people in Washington state have executed an advance directive, while less than 50 percent of severely or terminally ill patients are estimated to have executed such a directive.

Onyon said that a significant reason for the low rates may be “a lack of knowledge and considerable confusion about advance care planning and advance directives.”

Onyon noted that Health Care Decisions Day is designed to inspire, educate and empower the public and providers about the importance of advance care planning.

“The reason for this is just to encourage this action among our citizens because we think it’s an important thing to do in the health care realm,” she said.

The city of Bellingham and Whatcom County Council have also declared April 16 as Bellingham – Whatcom County Healthcare Decisions Day. According to Micki Jackson, a long-time advocate for advance care planning, Ferndale and Lynden have done the same thing.

These proclamations are part of a national effort to encourage patients to express their wishes regarding healthcare and for providers and facilities to respect those wishes, whatever they may be.

“On National Healthcare Decisions Day, no one in the U.S. should be able to open a paper, watch TV, view the internet, see a physician or lawyer, or go to a healthcare facility without being confronted with the topic of advance care planning,” reads the National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) website, nhdd.org. “Among other things, NHDD helps people understand that advance healthcare decision-making includes much more than living wills; it is a process that should focus first on conversation and choosing an agent.”

NHDD is an initiative of The Conversation Project, “a public engagement initiative with a goal that is both simple and transformative: to have every person’s wishes for end-of-life care expressed and respected.”

The Conversation Project began in 2010 and was founded by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Ellen Goodman.

According to the nonprofit’s research, while 92 percent of Americans say it’s important to discuss their wishes for end of life care, only 32 percent have had such a conversation. Meanwhile, 95 percent of Americans say they would be willing to talk about their wishes, and 53 percent even say they’d be relieved to discuss it.

In April, Whatcom County residents can expect to see a variety of efforts to spread awareness about this cause.

The founder and chair of NHDD, Nathan Kottkamp, will be speaking at Fairhaven Village Books in Bellingham on April 16 at noon. “Nathan got very interested in what we’re doing in our community because of some of the community-wide events that have happened here in the past,” said Micki Jackson. “He’s impressed with what’s going on here.”

Also in April, Jackson said there will be a testimonial wall on display at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham. It features photos of volunteers and community members holding up a copy of an advance directive and saying “I’ve got mine!”

Jackson said outpatient palliative care, including advance care planning, is critical.

“People will benefit and it will ease a lot of burdens for people, and possibly make the healthcare journey more accessible and smoother and less fragmented,” said Jackson.

She hopes Whatcom County can one day become like La Crosse, Wisconsin. According to a 2014 report by NPR, some 96 percent of people who die in La Crosse have an advance directive or similar documentation, compared to about 30 percent nationally. “It became part of their social fabric,” said Jackson.