Doylestown Health & Looking Ahead combine efforts

In 2017, Doylestown Health and Looking Ahead, the local nonprofit whose sole objective is to provide advance care planning (ACP) education and planning assistance, formed a community partnership to bring ACP to all adults in our community, regardless of age, health status or income. It’s already enabled Looking Ahead to reach a wider audience and have a more solid presence in Central Bucks.

Advance care planning is the process of creating an advance directive (“living will”) expressing your personal “goals of care” and choices for end-of-life health care and naming a healthcare agent to act on your behalf should you be unable to speak for yourself.

To take advantage of this community partnership, all you have to do is sign up for one of Looking Ahead’s exclusive small-group ACP sessions, called My Wishes Workshops®. Doylestown Health hosts these at the Wellness Center in Warrington several times a month—you can register here—and supports other workshops for community groups and faith-based organizations across the greater Central Bucks area.

Each workshop includes education on ACP—why it’s important, what it does (and doesn’t do), how to create your advance directive. Those participants who are ready can complete their documentation right then and there. Or, they can arrange to complete the advance directive at another time. Looking Ahead makes certain the finished document is filed with the person’s primary healthcare provider and hospital (even if the hospital isn’t Doylestown!).

Doylestown Health also has provided Looking Ahead with a dedicated Doylestown office: Suite 204A, 4259 West Swamp Road, in the same building as Doylestown Hospital’s new Urgent Care Center. Call for more information on workshops, or ask for a one-on-one planning session at a time that is convenient for you (and your spouse or loved ones, if you’d feel more comfortable having them there).

The workshops and one-on-one services are delivered free of charge to participants. Doylestown Health sponsors those not covered by the participant’s health insurance as its gift to the community.

To learn more about advance care planning with Looking Ahead and Doylestown Health, contact Betsy Payn, Looking Ahead co-founder and executive director, at 267.544.9580.

Don’t forget:
National Healthcare Decisions Day, April 16-22!

Have you shared your wishes for future health care
with loved ones & medical professionals?