Who's Your Agent?® Program

You can make your own care plan.

Make a health care plan throughout your lifetime.

Everyone's on a health care journey to get better care. Every journey needs a health care plan.

Our signature Who's Your Agent Program?®  is a structured approach to health care planning. It provides adults with an easy step-by-step process each person can do at their own pace to make a personal health care plan. Everyone can start with a simple conversation to make your plan. When you are ready, you can build on your conversations- from simple to serious illness-  to get good care that's right for you today and over your lifetime.

The Who's Your Agent Program has two easy to use tool kits, lots of helpful information, and conversation guides to talk with family and care providers. Consumers and care providers use the same program and tools for effective conversations.

  • For Consumers: The information below is an overview of our Who's Your Agent?® Program to make your own plan.
  • For Care Providers and Professionals: View the Who's Your Agent? Program for Care Providers  webpage to see an overview of tools, conversations guides, and webinars that compliment the consumer program.

What is Health Care Planning?

Planning for good care today and over your lifetime.

Our Who's Your Agent?® Program provides a simple structured approach to health care planning to help adults take control of their health care decisions and make a personal plan, for good care today and over your lifetime.

Health care planning is so much more than filling out a few planning documents. We define health care planning as both:

  • everyday care planning to talk with your care providers about your current health condition, goals and treatment options, to get good care today and everyday over your lifetime; and,
  • advance care planning to talk with your care providers about your future health needs, and write down your care preferences in MA planning documents.

Health care planning focuses on early and on-going planning conversations between adults and their health care providers in order to promote good health and stay well, manage changing health needs and chronic illness, and live well with serious illness.

The Who's Your Agent? Program and two tool kit follow this simple process:

EXPLORE

Think about care that's right for you. Get information to make care choices, and talk with your family and people important to you.

PLAN

Write down your care choices in the 5 Massachusetts planning document included in the Getting Started and Next Steps Tool Kits.

CONNECT

Talk with your health care providers to get the best possible care today and over your lifetime that matches your goals & care choices.

Things to Know Before Your Get Started

Here's some important information about health care planning in Massachusetts. Read more on the Resources page.

Who's Your Agent?® Program

Our signature Who's Your Agent? Program has everything you need to make a personal plan and work in partnership with your care providers. We focus on the 5 Massachusetts Planning Documents  which are included in the Getting Started and Next Steps Tool Kit. Read more below.

 

5 Massachusetts Care Planning Documents

Every state has different laws and different planning documents. These are the planning documents we use in Massachusetts.  Learn about the documents here and use the tool kits below to make your plan.

Health Care Proxy

Choose a trusted Health Care Agent to make care decisions. Appoint in a Health Care Proxy.

Read More

Personal Directive (Living Will)

Write down what's important to you and instructions for the care you want.

Read More 

Durable Power of Attorney

Choose a trusted person to make financial decisions for you and pay for the care you need.

Read More 

Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment

Seriously ill patients talk with clinicians about their treatment decisions and document choices.

Read More 

Comfort Care / Do Not Resuscitate Order

Seriously ill patients talk with clinicians about resuscitation and document choices.

Read More

Getting Started Tool Kit

Hispanic mother and daughter

1. Who's Your Agent?

Choose a Health Care Agent in a Health Care Proxy.

signing Personal Directive

2. What Matters to Me?

Write down your care choices in a Personal Directive(Living Will).

Talking to a doctor.

3. Talk About Your Care.

Talk with your clinicians and put your plan into action.

This tool kit includes simple step-by-step instructions and a downloadable Health Care Proxy and Personal Directive (Living Will), available in multiple languages, and a handy conversation guide Start a Simple Conversations to Stay Well.

Next Steps Tool Kit

Black daughter and mom hugging

1. Build on Your Plan

Talk with family & clinicians about your goals to stay healthy & live well.

Icon: 2 papers, 1 MOLST, 1 CC/DNR. Must be valid.

2. Update and Add Documents

Update your plan and add documents about personal and medical choices.

Senior woman being served a meal

3. Get Better Care

Talk to your care providers as your health needs change.

This tool kit includes handy conversation guides from simple to serious illness for consumers and care providers,  information on a Durable Power of Attorney, Comfort Care/Do Not Resuscitate Order (CC/DNR) and  Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) form to update and add to your plan, and information about specialized care for such as Palliative Care and Hospice Care.

Translated Documents, Wallet Card & Multilingual Videos

Consumers and care providers can download free translated planning documents and tools and view multi-lingual videos. You can download a translated document to use separately, or use with the Getting Started Tool Kit.

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 (Living Will) in 5 languages:

 English

Español -Spanish

Português - Portuguese

Русский -Russian

繁體中文 - Traditional Chinese

 English

Español -Spanish

Português - Portuguese

繁體中文 -Traditional Chinese

"I Have a Health Care Proxy" Wallet Card in 4 languages:

You can make your own wallet card to let others know how to call your Health Care Agent in a medical emergency. The wallet card template is downloadable in 4 languages. Just follow the simple  instructions to print, cut, fold, and add information. Read more about the Wallet Card.

Multi-lingual Videos: Sharing Personal Stories

My Voice, My Choice  shares the personal stories of Massachusetts adults within their own language, culture and ability, as they navigate their own health care planning journeys. View here.

Ways to Create, Store and Share Your Plan

man using cake overview

Here are a few ways you can complete, store, revise and share your documents. Be sure to share a copy of your documents with your Health Care Agent, and with your primary care physician to place your documents in your electronic medical record (EMR).

 

• Fill-out a Paper Document: Download, print & fill-out  a paper copy inEnglish and multiple languages. Learn more.

 

• Fill-In PDF Document: Use the fill-able pdf documents; download and print a paper copy. Learn more.

 

• On-line Documents & Storage: Create your Health Care Proxy and Personal Directive on-line through Cake, share with others, update & store documents. Learn more.

 

• Screen reader accessible: Use screen reader and fill-able online documents. Learn more.

Webinars for Consumers and Care Providers

For Honoring Choices MA Partners. Gather your groups for an informational, interactive webinars. We offer a consumer webinar focused on helping adults in your community, and two care providers webinars to help engage adults in planning conversations.

Want to become a Honoring Choices Partner?- it's easy and no cost. Read more about joining the Honoring Choices Partner Network

FOR CONSUMERS

Now's the Time! Make Your Own Health Care Plan

It's never been more important to make a plan and write down your care choices in a MA Health Care Proxy and Personal Directive. It helps your family and health care providers know what you want for care if you become ill, even for a short while.

This fun and informative webinar reviews the step-by-step Getting Started Tool Kit and opens to door to interactive questions and comments.

Participants receive a free Getting Started Tool Kit.

Schedule a joint webinar for adults in your community. Learn more.

 

FOR HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS

 Proactive Planning Conversations From Simple to Serious Illness

We offer two webinars to help care providers confidently engage adults in health care planning conversations. Choose from:

    • 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.

Schedule a joint webinar with Honoring Choices for your staff and colleagues. Learn more.