End of Life Resources

Listed below are local, state, national and international resources aimed at engaging healthcare providers, community based service providers, advocates and the public to promote education and a dialogue about End of Life planning in Southwest Washington.

Local Resources

Palliative Care Road Map
A guide for living with serious illness and conditions for patients and those who care for them.

Respecting Choices
Respecting Choices is an internationally recognized program that provides education in the process of communication: understand choices for future healthcare; reflect on personal goals, values, religious, or cultural beliefs; talk to physicians, healthcare agents, and other loved ones as needed.

Hope Bereavement Services
Free support, information and services for people coping with a death of a  loved one.

Community Home Health and Hospice Grief Support
Support groups are free of charge – and facilitated by staff and volunteers with specialized grief training. Join friendly, caring people who support each other through one of life’s most difficult experiences. Participants share as much or as little of their story as they want – and others listen without judgement.

Southwest Washington Life Transitions: End of Life Coalition
A coalition of members seeking to engage the public, healthcare providers, and community advocates about living and dying well in Clark County.

Washington State Resources

Dr. Robert Bree Collaborative End-of-Life Care Report and Recommendations
Created by WA State Legislature:  the Collaborative’ s goal is that all Washingtonians are informed about their end-of-life options, communicate their preferences in actionable terms, and receive end-of-life care that aligns with their and their family members’ goals and values.

Honoring Choices Pacific Northwest: WA State Medical Association (WSMA) and the WA State Hospital Association (WSH)
WSMA and WSH joined together to lead a multi-year initiative focused on an evidence-based, state-wide advance care planning initiative to inspire early conversations about the type of care people want when faced with life-threatening illness.

Washington End-of-Life Coalition
The coalition works to ensure it responds to short-range needs in care for the dying while allowing its long-range work to evolve, as end-of-life care itself evolves. Membership to the coalition is free. An annual meeting takes place.

Washington State’s Death with Dignity Act
The Washington Death with Dignity Act allows terminally ill, mentally competent adults with six months or less to live to receive a prescription for life-ending medication. In order to qualify, a person must be capable of making an informed decision and be able to self-administer the life-ending medication.

End of Life Washington
End of Life Washington, formerly Compassion & Choices of Washington, guides people in planning for the final days of their lives.

Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Mental Health Advance Directive
First-of-its-kind advance planning document allows people to document their wishes about future challenges related to living with Alzheimer’s and related dementia.

Whatcom Alliance for Health Advancement
Blueprint for Community Excellence at End of Life, View the Blueprint.

National and International Resources

The Conversation Project
A free starter kit in multiple languages, and a How to Talk to Your Doctor Guide are available.

Death Café
An international model begun in 2011, focuses a discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes with typically strangers who come together for this topic.

Death Over Dinner
University of Washington developed an international model to invite to dinner friends, colleagues and others to discuss End of Life.

Engage with Grace and the One Slide Project
The One Slide Project was designed with one simple goal: to help get the conversation about end of life experience started.

Administration on Aging: Long Term Care
The section on Advance Care Plan Considerations provides guidance on questions to address when planning for end of life.

Institute of Medicine: Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences Near the End of Life
Institute of Medicine’s  report recommends a person-centered, family-oriented approach that honors individual preferences and promotes quality of life.

Five Wishes
The most popular and easy to understand and use advance directive in America. This 12-page document, with a national circulation of 23 million, meets the legal requirements in 42 states. It includes important personal, emotional, and spiritual matters in addition to medical wishes.

Respecting Choices Advance Care Planning
An internationally recognized, evidence-based advance care planning model of care.