Why Plan

Health Emergency Advance Planning™ is something you do not just for yourself, but in consideration of your loved ones too. After all, they will be the ones who will deal with your medical emergency. Advance Planning will lessen their burden during a very stressful time for all.

One of the most important reasons for taking this step is to ensure you receive the best treatment based upon your past and present medical situation. For example, you may be taking a combination of medications that resulted in your medical emergency – paramedics and medical staff need to know this important information to determine how best to treat you. You may be unable to communicate this information for yourself because medication has temporarily affected your cognitive thinking, or you have “passed out”.

Documenting your past and present conditions is very important because we may otherwise forget with the passage of time, essential facts about our past medical experiences.

Documenting your future wishes is just as important. It is a method of ensuring your wishes will be respected regarding key medical decisions. Also, it can relieve the people most likely to make decisions on your behalf, of stress or guilt that might otherwise accompany decisions they are called upon to make on your behalf. The best way to do this is by creating a document called a “Living Will”, also known as an Advance Health Directive. You can learn more about this in the Fact Sheet enclosed in My-MEDIC-Notes™ kit.