Planning Ahead: Tools and Resources

End-of-Life Decisions: The Five Wishes

Thinking about one’s end of life can also involve making decisions about your health and future medical treatment. Doing this is another way to ensure your personal wishes are honored and that your loved ones do not need to make difficult decisions at a time of great stress.

Many people use a framework for end-of-life decisions called Five Wishes—which is a way to create a living will. This program, sponsored by a nonprofit organization called Aging with Dignity, lets your family and doctors know:

• Who you want to make health care decisions for you when you can't make them
  
• The kind of medical treatment you want or don't want
  
• How comfortable you want to be
  
• How you want people to treat you
  
• What you want your loved ones to know

These “five wishes” meet the legal requirements for an advance directive in the State of California.

Sinai and Aging with Dignity have created a workbook to help you implement the Five Wishes as part of your personal advance planning. You can request that a copy be sent to you by calling Sinai at (415) 921-3636.