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Guide to End of Life Planning Resources for North Carolinians

A tutorial from the IOA Information Center

Contents:
About this Guide
Resources for North Carolina Residents
General Planning Resources
Spanish Language Resources / Recursos en Español

About this Guide

This guide is intended for use by North Carolina consumers and/or their caregivers as a tool to facilitate end of life planning and decision making. It is not a substitute for legal advice regarding the creation of advance directives, health care powers of attorney and/or living wills; rather, it is an attempt to point to resources which will provide the individual with the opportunity to make appropriate decisions. If you are aware of additional free resources, or low-cost tools from non-profit organizations, which would add quality and depth to any of the categories below, please send email to aginginfo@unc.edu.

Resources for North Carolina Residents

  • ADVANCE DIRECTIVES AND LIVING WILLS
    • NC Department of the Secretary of State: Advance Healthcare Directive Registry
      http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/ahcdr/
      Provides forms which can be used by NC residents to document their wishes regarding various incapacity instructions such as advance health care directives, living wills and organ donation. Also provides instructions for registering these documents with the State of NC and creating protected online access to them.
    • NC Medical Society End-of-Life Resources
      http://www.ncmedsoc.org/pages/public_health_info/end_of_life.html
      Provides information on North Carolina legislation which took effect on October 1, 2007 addressing end of life, with the goal of promoting patient self-determination at the end of life. Includes overviews of House Bills 634 and 1372, examples of living will, health care power of attorney, MOST (Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment), and DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) forms, and information on tube feeding.
    • NC State University Department of Family and Consumer Sciences: The Living Will
      http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/fcs/frm/pubs/fcs364.php
      Explanation of what a living will is and does. Provides a legal North Carolina form for creating a living will.
    • Wake Forest University School of Law: Elder Law Clinic
      http://law.wfu.edu/clinics/elder/
      Links to useful information and NC statutory forms regarding end of life planning, as well as other elder law and aging issues.
    • ACP: Advance Care Planning: Resources for Caretakers and Health Care Professionals Providing Aging Counseling
      http://clipper.med.unc.edu/acp/
      This educational module provides comprehensive instruction on advance care planning, the process of preparing for death. Although written primarily for health professionals and health professions students in their clinical years, it can also be used by anyone interested in learning about advance care planning, especially those who want to do this preparation themselves, or assist another with the process. Sponsored by the UNC-CH Center for Aging and Health.

  • ORGAN DONATION
  • HOSPICE

General Planning Resources

  • A Record of Accomplishment in End-of-Life Care (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
    http://www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?id=18612
    Provides an archive of brief, readable reports generated by the Last Acts program. Covers issues such as CPR /DNR, and artificial nutrition/hydration.
  • Caring Connections
    http://www.caringinfo.org/
    A program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), Caring Connections is a national consumer engagement initiative to improve care at the end of life, supported by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It provides free resources, information and motivation for actively learning about end-of-life resources, promotes awareness of and engagement in efforts to increase access to quality end-of-life care, helps people connect with the resources they need, when they need them and brings together community, state and national partners working to improve end-of-life care.
    Also from Caring Connections, download advance directive forms in pdf format for any U.S. state:
    http://www.caringinfo.org/stateaddownload
  • Five Wishes
    http://www.agingwithdignity.org/five-wishes.php
    The Five Wishes document, from Aging with Dignity, enables individuals to express how they wish to be treated if seriously ill and unable to speak for themselves. The unique format addresses medical, personal, emotional and spiritual matters. Five Wishes also encourages discussing wishes with family and physician. The web site states that the document is meets the legal requirements for an advance directive in 42 states, including North Carolina.
    (Note: the document can be viewed online in .pdf format but not printed. Print copies may be ordered individually for $5, or $1 per copy for 25 or more. See the web site for more information.)
  • Passing on Thoughtfully
    https://project-compassion.org/bookstore?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=19
    This workbook is designed to create one place to gather, organize, and communicate important information about legal affairs, financial affairs, health affairs and wishes, final plans, and significant life events.
  • Search for more books at Amazon.com, combining subject terms such as 'death' and 'planning'.
  • Values History Form, Institute for Ethics, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
    http://hsc.unm.edu/ethics/docs/Values_History.pdf
    The Values History Form recognizes that medical decisions we make for ourselves are based on those beliefs, preferences and values that matter most to us. Developed at the Center for Health Law and Ethics, University of New Mexico School of Law, the form is not a legal document, although it may be used to supplement an Advance Directive such as a Living Will, a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, or a Health Care Proxy. Also available in Spanish.
  • You Only Die Once: Preparing for the End of Life With Grace and Gusto
    http://www.margiejenkins.com/
    Web site for Margie Little Jenkins, psychotherapist, lecturer and author of the book, You Only Die Once: Preparing for the End of Life With Grace and Gusto.

Spanish Language Resources / Recursos en Español

Institute on Aging
720 Martin Luther King Blvd., CB #1030
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-1030
phone 919-966-9444 | fax 919-966-0510

This page was last modified on: Wednesday, 14-Dec-2011 17:41:26 EST 12/13/11