Imagine you are in a hospital and you can’t speak, who will speak for you?

If you aren’t able to swallow or breathe, what will happen to you?

Without a plan, how will your health care providers know your wishes?

We all hope to be able to communicate until the end, but it doesn’t always happen that way.

April 16 is National Healthcare Decisions Day. The goal of National Healthcare Decisions Day is to inspire, educate and empower the public and health care providers about the importance of advance care planning. The initiative encourages people to name a health care agent, express their wishes regarding their health care, and to have providers and facilities respect these wishes.

The Missouri Bar has developed and makes available as a public service a “Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care and Health Care Directive” for use by the general public. This free form is available online here and may be downloaded and/or copied as needed.

Now is the time to put your end-of-life care wishes in place. According to studies cited by the National Healthcare Decisions Day organization, 9 out of every 10 Americans have heard of a living will, 3 of every 4 Americans have thought about their end-of-life preferences, but only 29% actually have a living will. Complete your living will this year.