Free April Advance Care Planning Workshops in Sonoma, Petaluma and Santa Rosa

Live in accord with your beliefs and values. Fulfill the goals that have meaning for you. Enjoy your favorite comforts: Isn’t that how you should get to live right up to your last breath—even if a medical crisis means that you are unable to make decisions for yourself?  

In honor of National Healthcare Decisions Day and Week, April 15-22, 2018, My Care, My Plan: Speak Up, Sonoma County will hold several free workshops in Sonoma, Petaluma and Santa Rosa to encourage residents to speak up now about how they want to be treated if incapacitated in a future medical situation.

"What would your most important priorities be if you were very ill and unable to participate in decision-making? What would matter to you most if your time were very limited? Who would you want to be prepared to speak for yourself in such moments? What would you want to be sure your loved ones and health care team knew you would want to avoid, if at all possible? These are some of the important questions to discuss with your loved ones," says Gary Johanson, MD, Medical Director, Memorial Hospice and St. Joseph Palliative Care Services.

Registration for the following events is online: Register online at MyCareMyPlanSonoma.orgunder Events. 

• Two workshops on Who Will Decide? will be Wednesday, April 11, 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM at Hospice of Petaluma, and Wednesday, April 18, 2018 -  5:30 PM - 7:30 PM at Memorial Hospice, Santa Rosa.

• Friday, April 13, 2018 -  12:30 PM – 1:30 PM, Steven Pantilat, M.D., Director, UCSF Palliative Care Program, will address Living Well with Serious Illness, at Vintage House in Sonoma. His talk will be followed by two Complete Your Advance Health Care Directive workshops, one at 2 p.m. and another starting at 6:30 PM.

• On Tuesday, April 17, 2018  2 PM - 4 PM., a Who Will Speak for You If You Can't Speak for Yourself? workshop in Santa Rosa will be led by Dr. Gary Johanson of Memorial Hospice and St. Joseph Palliative Care Services, and Dorothy Foster, MFT and co-chair of My Care My Plan: Speak Up, Sonoma County.

"Documentation of your wishes, through completion of an advance care directive, is part of the process," says Foster. "It's not something you do just once, but multiple times over your lifespan, because your priorities at age 25 are bound to be different at age 55 or 85."

My Care, My Plan: Speak Up, Sonoma County’s ( MyCareMyPlanSonoma.org) vision is for every adult in the county to become educated and empowered to express his/her wishes about end-of-life care, to have the opportunity to do so, and to have their wishes honored in a medical crisis. This is an initiative of the Committee for Healthcare Improvement and Sonoma County Health Action, mobilizing community partnerships and resources to achieve equity and improve health for all in Sonoma County. MCMP is a collaborative of organizations and individuals from the private, public, nonprofit, and volunteer sectors, including local health care and social service organizations and other community partners.