Statewide Cross-Continuum Partners

Working together for equal access to health care planning and timely quality care at every phase of health.

Grid of 5 images showing pairs of people of all ages that could be acting as health care agents for each other.

The Statewide Cross-Continuum Partners are helping to standardize care planning information across the Commonwealth. Honoring Choices supports their innovation programs to help consumers and care professionals engage in meaningful planning conversations- from simple to serious illness - and make a plan for good care today and over their lifetime.

Thanks to-

MA Health & Hospital Association (MHA) and Cross-Continuum Partners
MA Department of Public Health
MA Executive Office of Aging & Independence
Ariadne Labs, Serious Illness Care Program

Join us! Read about their programs and our collaboration below.

MA Health & Hosptial Association

Simple Step Campaign: A Cross-Continuum Initiative

Help adults take a simple step to complete a Health Care Proxy.

Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association.

The Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA) and leading cross-continuum organizations, Honoring Choices MA (HCM), MA Medical Society, LeadingAge, MA Senior Care, MA Aging Access, Home Care Alliance MA, Hospice & Palliative Care Fed/MA, have come together to support the Simple Step Campaign.

The goal is to take a simple step to engage every adult in a simple conversation to choose a Health Care Agent and complete a Health Care Proxy. If adults are not able to choose a Health Care Agent, care professionals can offer the HCM Personal Directive (Living Will). The Personal Directive helps adults write down their care preferences and share with their care providers.

It's easy to include the Simple Step Campaign to your organization's workflow. MHA provides the no cost Simple Step campaign materials, Honoring Choices multi-lingual planning documents and tool kits, and a 30 minute staff training to confidently engage adults in simple conversations.

Join us! All community groups and health care systems are very welcome to join the campaign. Let's ensure every adult across the Commonwealth has early and equal access to health care planning.

MA Department of Public Health

Statewide Health Care Proxy Campaign

MA DPH partners with Honoring Choices MA and MA Health & Hospital Association to ensure every adult 18 and older can complete a Health Care Proxy.

The MA Department of Public Health (MA DPH) has partnered with Honoring Choices MA and Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association (MHA) to support a statewide Health Care Proxy Campaign, using the Honoring Choices structured approach to health care planning with free, downloadable multilingual documents and tools.

MA DPH Comissioner Robert Goldstein states that adults, 18 years old and older, can choose a Health Care Agent and complete a Health Care Proxy. Read more here.

The Honoring Choices QUICK START page makes it easy to complete a Health Care Proxy.

Choose a trusted person to be your Health Care Agent. (See videos in 4 languages).
Download and complete a free Health Care Proxy document (available in 16 languages).
Share your completed Health Care Proxy with your doctors and care teams to place in your medical record
- Talk about care that's right for you. Download Consumer Conversation Guides.

Not able to choose a Health Care Agent? That's Okay.

Download a Personal Directive or Living Will document (available in 5 languages). You can write down your care preferences and share with your doctors and care team.

Download a Consumer Handout and distribute in your community

Working with members of a MA DPH workgroup and MA Health & Hospital Association, we developed a 1-page easy to use Who Is Your Health Care Agent? Consumer Handout. The handout offers a 3-step guide to choose a Health Care Agent, complete a Health Care Proxy, and share your completed document with your doctors and care teams. If you are not able to choose a Health Care Agent- that's OK. You can start with a Personal Directive to give other instructions about how you want to be cared for.

Available in 9 languages
Distribute at health clinics, town events, or anywhere consumers gather, work or play.
Co-brand the handouts with your organization’s logo
Click here for more information

MA Executive Office of Aging & Independence

MA Councils on Aging and MA Aging Access

For 11 years, Honoring Choices has co-hosted consumer and care professional webinars.

The MA Executive Office of Aging & Independence, formerly MA Executive Office of Elder Affairs, has partnered with Honoring Choices for over 11 years to support the work of the 350 MA Councils on Aging and the 27 members agencies of MA Aging Access.

We partner with individual members to co-host a virtual event and tailor multilingual tools to-

inform and empower consumers to make a personal care plan,
enhance the knowledge and skills of care professionals and staff as HCM Health Care Planning Ambassadors to confidently engage adults in planning conversations;
support the MOLST Program and upcoming POLST Program.

To schedule a webinar, please contact Ellen, edipaola@honoringchoicesmass.com

Ariadne Labs, Serious Illness Care Program

Serious Illness Conversation Guides for Care Professionals

Ariadne Labs, Serious Illness Care Program, a long time Honoring Choices Partner has collaborated on numerous projects to help introduce the Serious Illness Conversation Guide (SICG) to our interprofessional partner network. For the last 6 years, introducing the SICG has been part of our care professional webinar- Engage Adults in Seamless Conversation from Simple to Serious Illness. The SICG has expand and strengthened the skills of thousands of interprofessional care team members to confidently engage adults in serious illness conversations.

Our special thanks to Dr. Erik Fromme, Ariadne Labs, for working together to adapt a serious illness care planning model to generate the HCM Who's Your Agent? Health Care Planning Process. The planning process includes both Honoring Choices tools and Ariadne Labs tools for important planning conversations accompanied by planning documents and conversations guides.