Community Partners Join Forces to Launch the First Ambassador Program
“I think people don’t realize that doing a simple Health Care Proxy and Personal Directive can take the burden off your family in knowing how to care for you,” says Brenda Coss, an Honoring Choices Ambassador. When a medical crisis happens, the decisions are already made and in your documents. All your family has to do is tell your doctors what you want. It really takes the burden and stress off and is a great gift you can give to your family.”
Ambassadors are community volunteers that offer peer-to-peer health care planning discussions to help adults make a personal health care plan and get connected to care in their community. Four Honoring Choices Community Partners- Hudson Senior Center, Marlborough Council on Aging, Northborough Senior Center and Arthur P. Bergeron, Elder Law Attorney, Mirick O’Connell, Westborough are working together to establish the first Ambassador Program to promote access to information and healthy living for all adults & families in their region. They invited interested volunteers in their organizations to become Ambassadors. Brenda likes the friendly nature of the peer-to-peer discussions, commenting “It’s a more personal and relaxed way to make your health care plan.”
We recently meet with the new Ambassadors at the Marlborough Senior Center. Honoring Choices provided a training in the Who’s Your Agent? Program’s “Getting Started Tool Kit” and explored the role of an Ambassador. The Ambassadors will help adults in their community exercise their right to make a health care plan with free information and tools, talk about the challenges and barriers adults face in getting timely, affordable good care, and help connect adults to needed care and services to improve everyday healthy living. Ambassadors will offer 20-30 minute presentations to ensure every adult can access the information to choose a Health Care Agent in a Health Care Proxy, and write down instructions for their Agent for the kind of care they want in a Personal Directive. Ambassadors will encourage adults to put their plan into action with their doctors and care providers.
Many thanks to our four Community Partners for their vision and commitment: Janice Hudson, Executive Director, Hudson Senior Center; Trisha Pope, Executive Director, Marlborough Council on Aging, Kelly Burke, Executive Director, Northborough Senior Center , and Arthur P. Bergeron, Elder Law Attorney, Mirick O’Connell, Westborough.
For more information to start your own Ambassador Program, Read more here.