COLLABORATING WITH THE CONVERSATION PROJECT
Today, Honoring Choices Massachusetts welcomes The Conversation Project as a Collaborating Member. Because the mission of each of our organizations is to help individuals and families create care choices that are understood and respected, this collaboration will serve each to strengthen our organization’s platforms. The Conversation Project is nationally recognized as expert in guiding adults and families to have effective conversations about their wishes for end of life care, while Honoring Choices is supporting community groups and care providers across the Commonwealth with educational tools to engage adults and families in health care planning discussions and receive person-centered care throughout their lives.
A few weeks ago, in this space, we reported on a CBS piece on the Respecting Choices model, employed in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and where an astounding 96% of residents have advanced care directives in place. Honoring Choices Massachusetts uses the Respecting Choices model as our educational foundation which has been so effective in many states, as well as internationally, and through which we are working toward expanding the platform throughout the Commonwealth.
The Conversation Project is focused particularly on creating end-of-life conversations, nationwide, by “transforming our culture so we shift from not talking about dying to talking about it” and to do that by offering convenient and effective tools “to share the way we want to live at the end of our lives” as well as “to communicate about the kind of care we want and don’t want for ourselves.”
Since its inception by Ellen Goodman, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and a group of distinguished colleagues, The Conversation Project has had great success through its website as well as in collaboration with nationally recognized health care organizations, effectively promoting its core message that “the place for this conversation to begin is at the kitchen table—not in the intensive care unit—with the people we love.”
We’re excitedly anticipating that through this collaborative partnership we will broaden our respective platforms here in Massachusetts. As Harriett Warshaw, Executive Director of The Conversation Project says “We are so pleased to be collaborating with Honoring Choices … working together to provide pathways to information and tools for all adults and families,” while adding that “it’s most important that the public have access to a range of services that encourage end of life conversations.”
Our message is to recognize, as The Conversation Project says in its Statement of Purpose: “Together we can make these difficult conversations easier. We can make sure that our own wishes and those of our loved ones are expressed and respected.”
Read more about The Conversation Starter Kits