Capital Caring Joins The Conversation Project’s Movement to Encourage Meaningful Conversations About End-of-Life Care

FALLS CHURCH, Va.--()--Capital Caring, one of the largest and most experienced providers of hospice and palliative care in the mid-Atlantic region, has teamed up with The Conversation Project to educate people on the value of making decisions about their own wishes for end-of-life care. Together the organizations are combining efforts to create positive change in the way our society deals with and prepares for their final days.

Starting today, the partners will leverage National Healthcare Decision Day, recognized April 16, to kick off a grassroots and digital campaign to stimulate family conversations and offer local and national resources about end-of-life care options.

“We know that 90 percent of Americans say that talking about their end-of-life care wishes is important, but that only 30 percent of people are actually having these conversations. Our goal is to close this gap,” says Ellen Goodman, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and co-founder of The Conversation Project. “People fear that speaking to their loved ones about their final days would be too grim, but in reality, these are among the most intimate and meaningful conversations people can have.”

Malene Davis, Capital Caring President and CEO, agreed, saying, “After serving patients and families struggling with advanced illness for more than 40 years, the comment we hear most frequently is, ‘I wish I had known about you (hospice care) sooner.’ Partnering with an organization dedicated to having the conversation before it’s too late, helps us educate the countless members of our community who need our help and don’t know where to turn.”

Capital Caring’s service area includes northern Virginia to Fredericksburg and Richmond; suburban Maryland; the District of Columbia; and 13 counties in northern West Virginia. It is the home of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s POST (Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment) and part of the POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) Paradigm that originated in Oregon in the 1990s to combat the "failure of advance directives."

Since August 2012, The Conversation Project has been inspiring end-of-life conversations. The Conversation Project’s website is the heart of the campaign’s work, which includes The Conversation Project Starter Kit, a free, downloadable, step-by-step guide developed to help individuals and families start the conversation about end-of-life care.

Contacts

Capital Caring
Nancy Cook
703-531‐6241
ncook@capitalcaring.org
or
The Conversation Project
Kate DeBartolo, Director
617-301-4976
kdebartolo@ihi.org

Release Summary

Capital Caring has teamed up with The Conversation Project to educate people on the value of making decisions about end-of-life care.

Contacts

Capital Caring
Nancy Cook
703-531‐6241
ncook@capitalcaring.org
or
The Conversation Project
Kate DeBartolo, Director
617-301-4976
kdebartolo@ihi.org