Connect: Put Your Plan into Action

Talk with your doctors & care providers to align the best possible care to your goals, values and choices. You can start a discussion with these simple questions or use the "5 Things to Talk About" discussion guides below.

"Here's how I'm feeling today"... to promote your everyday health
"What's ahead for me?"... to plan for future care, and
"Here are my goals for care — how can we get there?"... to match the best possible care to your choices.

"5 Things To Talk About ..." Discussion Guides

Handy guides to have effective consumer-clincian planning conversations.

Graphic shows different phases of health: Wellness, Chronic Illness and Serious Advancing Illness

The "5 Things to Know" series offers both the consumer and care provider a common place to start a goals of care planning discussion, and continue to engage in effective discussions at every phase of health. The handy discussion guides are built on an adult's top legal and patient rights to direct their care decisions and receive the best possible care today and over their lifetime.

Anyone can start a planning discussion. The handy guides make it easy.

Select a guide below for Consumers or Care Providers.
- The Consumer Guides and Care Provider Guides mirror each other — they have the same topics and questions.
Simply start with the first question on the guide or choose one or more questions that are important to you.
Talk about your care goals and make a plan to get good care that aligns with your care goals, values and choices.

To Get Started: Download the Everyday Care Guide or any guide you like.

For Consumers: "5 Things To Talk About With Care Providers"

Here are 4 discussion guides:

For Care Providers: "5 Things To Talk About with Patients & Clients"

Here are 4 discussion guides:

Information & Tools:

What are an Adult's 5 Top Rights in Health Care Planning ?

The "5 Things to Know" series offers both the consumer and care provider a common place to start a planning discussion. The discussion guides are built on a competent adult's legal & patient rights in health care planning. The 5 top rights are the-

Right to information to make informed care choices;
Right to direct your care decisions, and to accept and refuse medical treatments;
Right to make a personal health care plan and write down your choices for care;
Right to have your choices known; to communicate, update, revise & record your choices in the medical record;
Right to have your choices honored, and align quality care to your care goals, values and choices.

How were the topics & questions selected?

Our goal is to bring together a common language and set of terms so either a consumer or care provider can start a planning discussion. There is a consumer guide and a care provider guide — same topics and questions just from their respective perspective. Forming the essential 10-12 questions in each guide was a highly collaborative process. Hundreds of interdisciplinary care providers, from large health systems to community groups, consulted on the questions and added their expertise in working with patients and clients. The care providers worked together for many months, unifying and tailoring the questions to be universal to age, ability and culture, so that each question could be re-visited and re-defined as a patient or client's health needs changed over time. The Honoring Choices Alliance Partners and Community Partners formed the collaborative process to ensure the discussion guides could easily become a routine part of every consumer-care provider visit.

Why make a series of 4 disucssion guides?

The series of 4 discussion guides are built on the fundamental right of person-directed care and a competent adult's 5 top rights. The common foundation for the series is established in the Everyday Care Guide. We created a series to align with the three phases of health and added a Palliative Care Guide. The guides recognize the fact that health care changes and so can the planning needs of adults and families. Our interdisciplinary care providers created the guides to show how questions, concerns and decisions can change as an illness progresses and goals of care are revisited and redefined. Each discussion guide coordinates with the Honoring Choices Getting Started and Next Steps Tool Kits. The Health Care Planning Road Map illustrates how the 4 guides work together for high quality consumer-care provider discussions at every phase of your health care journey.

Where do I start? How do I use the discussion guides?

Everyone is different. You can start with the Everyday Care Guide no matter where you are on your health care journey. It's easy to use and provides the basic set of topics and questions. Remember, this is not a script, it's just a guide. Choose any topic & question that makes sense to you to start your discussion. Often consumers and care providers start with one question regarding what information is needed to understand one’s illness to make choices for care. You can start with one question or a few, then build on your discussions overtime. Consumers can bring the guide to their next appointment — or call ahead to make an appointment for an “advance care planning discussion.” Care providers are placing the index card version of the discussion guides in the waiting rooms. It is helping to make the discussion “known and routine” for each visit.