Resources for the Who's Your Agent? Program
Make your own health care plan. Help others to make a plan.
Your health care plan helps you write down you care choices and work in partnership with your care providers to get the best possible care today and everyday over your lifetime. Our signature Who’s Your Agent? Program below has everything you need to make your own plan. Consumers and care professionals use the same planning process & planning tools.
Make your own plan or gather your group for an information webinar:
- Start with the Health Care Planning Process, our step by step guide.
- Use the Getting Started Tool Kit and Next Step Tool Kit to write down your care choices.
- Personalize & Update your plan with multi-lingual documents, wallet cards, and conversations guides.
- Plan Consumer & Care Provider webinars to inform your community group and enhance the skills of health care professionals.
The Honoring Choices Partners are working together to standardize health care planning statewide and improve health outcomes.
- Simple Step Campaign. MA Health & Hospital Association and a coalition of cross care continuum organizations, are spearheading a statewide campaign to engage adults in simple planning conversations to complete Health Care Proxy and Personal Directive (Living Will). Come join us! Read more below.
Our step-by step Health Care Planning Process makes it easy to make a plan over your lifetime.
Just start with a planning conversation on the left side of the graphic to make care choices, and write down your care choices in the accompanying planning documents on the right side. The planning process helps you go at your own pace to have planning conversations from simple-to-serious illness, using the Honoring Choices Who's Your Agent? Program planning tools and the Ariadne Labs Serious Illness Conversation Guide.
Getting Started and Next Steps Tool Kits
Use the tool kits to make and update your personal care plan
Getting Started Tool Kit
Start a simple conversation to make your own plan. The tool kit includes:
- Name a Health Care Agent
- MA Health Care Proxy; available in 15 languages
- Make your own "I Have a Health Care Proxy" Wallet Card
- Talk to important people about your care preferences
- Personal Directive (Living Will) document; 5 languages
- Durable Power of Attorney fact sheet
- Talk with your care professionals about your goals and priorities
- Consumer Conversation Guide 1- Start a Simple Conversation To Stay Well
Next Steps Tool Kit
Build on your conversations from simple to serious illness. The tool kit includes:
- Talk with your care professionals about chronic illness and serious illness.
- Consumer Conversation Guide Series:
- Guide 2- Manage Chronic Illness;
- Guide 3- Live Well with Serious Illness
- Guide 4-Let's Talk About Palliative Care
- Consumer Conversation Guide Series:
- MOLST Conversation for persons with serious illness
- MOLST: Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment sample medical order and fact sheet
- End of Life Care planning tools
Download the Next Steps Tool Kit
- For Clinicians and Care Team Members
- Care Provider Conversation Guide Series, Guide 2-4;
- Ariadne Labs Serious Illness Conversation Guide
Personalize Your Plan
You can use the tool kits above and personalize your plan with conversations guides, multi-lingual documents, a wallet card, and informational fact sheets. Update your plan as your health needs change over your lifetime.
Handy Conversation Guides
The Honoring Choices Consumer and Care Provider Conversation Guides below mirror each other and offer 5 key topics to explore with sample questions.
For serious illness conversations, health care providers can also use Ariadne Labs Serious Illness Conversation Guide. Adults and families can use the What Matters To Me Workbook, by The Conversation Project and Ariadne Labs, to prepare for serious illness conversations with their health care providers. The Honoring Choices and Ariadne Labs conversation guides work well together for seamless conversations from simple to serious illness.
Honoring Choices Consumer Conversation Guides
5 Things to Talk About with Your Care Providers
Guide 1: Start a Simple Conversation to Stay Well
Guide 2: Managing Health and Chronic Illness
Honoring Choices Care Provider Conversation Guides
5 Things to Talk About with Your Care Providers
Guide 1: Start a Simple Conversation to Stay Well
Guide 2: Managing Health and Chronic Illness
Serious Illness Conversation Guides
- For Health Care Providers: Ariadne Labs Serious Illness Conversations Guide
- For Consumers: What Matters To Me Workbook available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Ariadne Labs and The Conversation Project.
5 Massachusetts Care Planning Documents
Here are the planning documents we use in Massachusetts. Download informational fact sheets and forms.
Health Care Proxy
Choose a trusted Health Care Agent to make care decisions. Appoint in a Health Care Proxy.
Personal Directive (Living Will)
Write down what's important to you and instructions for the care you want.
Durable Power of Attorney
Choose a trusted person to make financial decisions for you and pay for the care you need.
Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment
Seriously ill patients talk with clinicians about their treatment decisions and document choices.
Comfort Care / Do Not Resuscitate Order
Seriously ill patients talk with clinicians about resuscitation and document choices.
Multi-lingual Documents, Wallet Card & Videos
Health Care Proxy
Download Health Care Proxy in 15 languages
English - English
Español - Spanish
Português - Portuguese
Tiếng Việt - Vietnamese
Kreyòl Ayisyen - Haitian Creole
Kiswahili - Swahili
नेपाली - Nepali
简体中文 - Simplified Chinese
Tagalog - Tagalog
Русский - Russian
繁體中文 - Traditional Chinese
عربي - Arabic
ភាសាខ្មែរ - Khmer
Shqip - Albanian
Polish- Polski
Personal Directive
Download Personal Directive in 5 languages
Español -Spanish
Português - Portuguese
Русский -Russian
繁體中文 - Traditional Chinese
Wallet Card
"I Have a Health Care Proxy" wallet card in 4 languages
Español -Spanish
Português - Portuguese
繁體中文 -Traditional Chinese
Your Voice, Your Choice Videos
Accessibility
- Screen reader accessible: Use screen reader and fill-able online documents. Learn more.
Information and FAQs
Download Fact Sheets and Frequently Asked Questions
Capacity and Decision-Making
Caregivers
Care Planning: Health Care Planning vs. Advance Care Planning
Comfort Care/Do Not Resuscitate Order (CC/DNR)
Durable Power of Attorney
Guardianship
- What is Guardianship?
- Guardians' Role & Decision-Making Authority
Health Care Agent
Health Care Proxy
Hospice Care
Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST)
- What is a MOLST and CC/DNR?
- Sample MA MOLST form
- EMS and MOLST: Things you can do ahead of an emergency!
Palliative Care
Personal Directive
Serious Illness Care
Supported Decision Making
Terms & Tips to Understand Health Care Planning
Who’s Your Agent? Program
Consumers and Care Provider Webinars
Gather your group: we provide the health care planning process and tools to inform and empower consumers, and help care providers & staff enhance their skills.
Now's the Time! Make Your Own Health Care Plan
For your community or consumer group. We'll provide a fun and information virtual session to help every person start to make their own health care plan using the Getting Started Tool Kit. The tool kit includes a MA Health Care Proxy to choose a Heath Care Agent, a Personal Directive (Living Will) to give instructions about your care, and a handy conversation guide to start a planning conversation with your care providers. Learn more.
Engage Adults in Conversations from Simple to Serious Illness
For your health care professionals. Choose one or both of the virtual sessions:
- Become a Certified Health Care Planning Ambassador, using the Honoring Choices Getting Started and Next Steps Tool Kit
- Engage Adults in Seamless Conversations from Simple to Serious Illness, using Honoring Choices Tool Kits and introducing Ariadne Lab's Serious Illness Conversation Guide. Learn more.
Honoring Choices Partners: Working Together to Standardize Care Planning and Improve Health Outcomes
Simple Step- Cross Continuum Planning Campaign
The MA Health and Hospital Association and a coalition of leading organizations across the care continuum, have come together to promote long term care planning starting by taking a simple step.
The Simple Step campaign helps patients/ consumers start a simple planning conversation to designate a Health Care Agent and complete a Health Care Proxy document
The coalition is highlighting three key steps for community members:
- Choose someone you trust to be your designated Health Care Agent, and have a simple conversation about how you want to be cared if you get sick and can make care decisions yourself;
- Complete a Health Care Proxy form to appoint your Health Care Agent– you can do it all yourself! The Honoring Choices MA Health Care Proxy is free, downloadable and available in 15 languages,
- Talk with your with your health care team about the care that’s right for you and place your Health Care Proxy in your medical record.
Resources:
- See the partner toolkit and patient resources here.
- Messaging you can adapt and Simple Step graphics
- Download the free Honoring Choices Health Care Proxy, available in 15 languages,
- View a short video- “Complete Your Own Honoring Choices Health Care Proxy”
Come Join us! All state, health care and community organizations across the care continuum are very welcome. We'll provide the process and tools to easily embed simple conversations into your everyday work.
Helpful Webpages
Who's Your Agent? for Care Providers
Our Who's Your Agent? Program for Care Providers and Professionals is a one-stop overview of our structured approach to health care planning. It has everything you need to confidently engage adults in conversations from simple to serious illness, and make a care plan for the best possible care. Read about the Program for Care Providers.
Serious Illness Care
Learn about serious illness care, how to have planning conversations, and consider a MOLST or CC/DNR form. NEW: the POLST Program coming soon. Read more about Serious Illness Care.
Palliative Care
Palliative Care helps people with serious illness have an extra layer of support to relive the pain, symptoms and stress of serious illness. Helps families too. Read more about Palliative Care.
Get Help In Your Community
Meet the Community Partners in 7 regions of the state. They can help you make a personal plan and connect you to care in your community. Find a Partner in your community.
New England Planning Documents
Download state-specific documents from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Read more about New England documents.
Lifetime Health Care Planning Roadmap
See how the health care planning works at every phase of health- from promoting everyday wellness, to managing health needs and chronic illness, and living well with serious illness. Read more about the Roadmap.