Kootenai | Kootenai Health | Issue 1, 2020

Nicole Pelly, M.D., Kootenai Clinic Palliative Care Howcan Iwrite an advance directive? Your primary care doctor or specialist should be able to provide you with the correct forms, or you can write your wishes down yourself. You can also get forms from your local health department or have a lawyer prepare them. “The best way to complete advance directives is to discuss your end-of-life care wishes with your primary care provider using the advance directive forms,” said Jill Weeks, executive director of Kootenai Health Transitional Care Services. “Currently, there are 23 facilitators in the northern Idaho region who have been trained to help individuals start the conversation about end-of-life health care decisions and can provide guidance on completing an advance directive form.” Contact information is available online at idaholivinganddyingwell.org . Help is here If you have questions about your advance directives, meet with your primary care provider to discuss your questions or contact an organization with trained advan ce care planning facili tators. You can find a co mplete list of local resources a t idaholivinganddyingwell.org . Where can I findhelp? Recently, the North Idaho Palliative Care Coalition partnered with the Northwest Hospital Alliance to create Idaho Living and Dying Well—a unified website for all advance directives, palliative care and hospice care resources. This site, tailored to those living in the Idaho Panhandle, provides access to up-to-date forms, community events, and other resources for both patients and health care professionals. “We developed this site so we can have one location for resources from all five of our northern counties,” Dr. Pelly said. “We want to make it easy for our patients to make their wishes known. It helps us as caregivers and it helps their family make the right choices.” Jill Weeks, executive director of Kootenai Health Transitional Care Services KH . ORG 15 How here