National Healthcare Decisions Week Highlights the Importance of Advance Care Planning
April 1, 2025 (Jacksonville, Fla.) – National Healthcare Decisions Week kicks off on April 14, 2025, with a nationwide effort to raise awareness about the importance of advance healthcare decision-making. This initiative encourages individuals to take proactive steps in planning for their future healthcare needs. Through various events and resources, the week aims to promote thoughtful conversations about healthcare decisions and the completion of advance directives to ensure patients' wishes are known and respected.
As part of this effort, Five Wishes, Florida's advance care planning initiative coordinated by Community Hospice & Palliative Care, provides essential tools and information for the public to discuss their healthcare wishes with family, friends, and healthcare providers. These resources help individuals complete written advance directives (healthcare surrogate and living will) by Florida state laws. To access these tools, visit https://www.fivewishes.org.
Additionally, Community Hospice & Palliative Care uses the My Directives program, a valuable tool offering individuals a straightforward, digital platform for making and sharing healthcare decisions with their loved ones and healthcare providers. This program helps ensure patients' wishes are known and respected, especially in critical situations.
As a result of National Healthcare Decisions Day, the goal is for people in our community to have thoughtful conversations about their healthcare decisions and complete reliable advance directives to make their wishes known. Fewer families and healthcare providers will have to struggle with making difficult healthcare decisions without guidance from the patient. Healthcare providers and facilities will be better equipped to address advance healthcare planning issues before a crisis and be better able to honor patient wishes when the time comes to do so.
For more information about National Healthcare Decision Day, please visit http://nhdd.org.
About Community Hospice & Palliative Care
Established in 1979, Community Hospice & Palliative Care is an innovative national leader in palliative and hospice care, as well as providing programs and services to meet the diverse needs of the communities it serves. During its 46-year history, through the support of more than 1,000 employees and 1,000 volunteers, the organization helps approximately 1,500 patients per day to live better with advanced illness – at home, in long-term care and assisted living facilities, in hospitals and at its 10 inpatient care centers. No one is ever denied care due to an inability to pay. To learn more about the support and services of Community Hospice & Palliative Care, visit CommunityHospice.com