{"id":10775,"date":"2015-08-26T16:03:04","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T20:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/jss-newsletter-vol-3-no-3\/jss%e3%83%bb%e3%83%a2%e3%83%9f%e3%82%b8%e5%85%b1%e5%82%ac%e3%81%ae%e3%80%8c%e3%82%a2%e3%83%89%e3%83%90%e3%83%b3%e3%82%b9%e3%83%bb%e3%82%b1%e3%82%a2%e3%83%bb%e3%83%97%e3%83%a9%e3%83%b3%e3%83%8b\/"},"modified":"2021-02-18T15:35:04","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T19:35:04","slug":"advance-care-planning-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/jss-newsletter\/jss-newsletter-vol-3-no-3-en\/advance-care-planning-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Workshop for Advance Care Planning (ACP) offered by Momiji Health Care Society & JSS"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Yoko Galloway
\nOn June 27, 2015, I went to a movie screening of “A Terminal Trust” which had been originally released in 2012 in Japan. It was shown to a packed audience at Innis Town Hall of the University of Toronto. With an introduction by the director, Masayuki Suo, known for movies such as \u201cShall We Dance?\u201d and \u201cI Just Did Not Do It\u201d, together with his wife, actress Tamiyo Kusakari who played a doctor sympathizing with a patient.\u00a0\u00a0 The other leading actor in the movie was Koji Yakusho, who played a terminally ill patient, who had asked his doctor to terminate his life, when his time came. The theme was about \u201cassisted dying\u201d and \u201cdeath with dignity.\u201d It was a thought-provoking film that made us think about what to do and how to convey our wishes regarding treatment and care based on our own values, what to expect when much remains unsaid or how to deal with uncertainties when these situations actually happen to people around us including ourselves.
\nWith longer average spans nowadays, newspapers and the media have been talking<\/em> about the importance of staying healthy, and people are really careful about diet and exercise. However, when it comes to end of life decisions, not everyone is aware of what various terms mean such as ending notes, living will, Power of Attorney, terminal treatments or palliative care, euthanasia and so on.
\nLast year on November 27, 2014 JSS and Momiji Health Care Society jointly offered a seminar titled “What You Should Know In Case of\u2026. ; Power of Attorney for Personal Care and Property as well as Creation of Will\u201d presented by Nozomi Smith, an estate lawyer. During the seminar, the importance of preparing documentations as well as designating a person who could act as your representative to execute your wishes were emphasized, in case you are no longer able to communicate them yourself. \"\"
\nAs a follow-up to that, this year on July 24, 2015 (Friday) from 1:00 p.m. until 3:30 p.m., a workshop called \u201cAdvance Care Planning \u2014 What You\u2019d Like to Prepare Prior to Anything Happening\u201d co-sponsored by the JSS and Momiji Health Care Society was offered. Ms. Yuka Okada and Ms. Keiko Hoshi from Momiji and Ms. Chie Takano from JSS facilitated the workshop with 21 people attending the session.
\nThis time, even if you designate a Power of Attorney and create documentations such as \u2018Personal Care\u2019 and \u2018Property\u2019, the main theme was that you still need to prepare your plan in advance (Advance Care Planning) and create \u201cAdvance Care Directive\u201d stipulating types of treatments and cares you would like to have based on your own values, as there is the likelihood of some choices being made different from your own intentions or desires.
\nTowards the end of the workshop, people were divided into several groups and participated in examining case studies and exchanged opinions.
\nThe Advance Care Planning is not planning for death but rather it is a planning for the next stage of your life. It is a process about planning and discussing with your family members, people close to you, care-givers, and healthcare workers about future treatment and care.
\nWhat is included in the Advanced Care Planning (ACP) are as follows.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Advance Care Directive (ACD): A written document on what you would hope to have with regards to the care and treatment you\u2019d receive<\/li>\n
  2. Power of Attorney for Personal Care (POA-PC): A person or persons legally appointed by you who will act as your representative to ensure your wishes are followed through.<\/li>\n
  3. And you convey your wishes and discuss them with those around you.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It is important that people designated as “Power of Attorney \u2014 Personal Care” of the above, are those who know their responsibilities as Substitute Decision Makers (SDM), know you well, and that they are the ones in whom you can place your trust.
    \nThose who can become Substitute Decision Makers (SDM) are stipulated by the Health Care Consent Act, based on their relationships to the person, and are appointed in order of the priority by law. \"\"
    \nNobody knows what would happen next. And if you do not want the life-sustaining treatments, when you become bedridden and too ill to convey your intentions, it is important that you\u2019d already prepared for those occasions in writing or made it clear by discussing with your family members in advance as to \u201cwhat you want.”
    \nYou need to know your medical rights and the benefits and risks of those medical practices that often occur such as Resuscitation, Tube Feeding, and Ventilation. It is also important to keep track of accurate information on things like \u201cDo Not Resuscitate Order (DNR Order) ” and “Terminal Care (Palliative Care)” in case you need to make decisions related to those topics.
    \nIn Canada, suicide has been removed from being a criminal offence. Physician Assisted Dying has been illegal until recently; however, it is at a stage where Parliament has been studying the implications of \u201cPhysician Assisted Dying\u201d in terms of legalization in the future. When you find out you\u2019re terminally ill and you\u2019ve decided whether or not you\u2019d like to receive life-sustaining treatments, how are you supposed to tell those around you about what to do, when you suffer from diseases that are not going to be cured. Also when you do not want to live suffering from excruciating pain, what are you supposed to do? In addition, when your family members or loved ones suffer from debilitating diseases or have had an accident, when being told that they\u2019d rather die, how are you going to respect their wishes? When it\u2019s not clear or insufficient for the family members as to what they mean by not wanting \u201clife-sustaining treatment, \u201d family members will be at a loss or troubled regarding what to do or how to respect their desire, when it comes to deciding on types of treatments their loved ones would have preferred.
    \nIt takes an enormous amount of responsibility to be left with the last decisions before the death of a loved one. In order for everyone to come up with the decisions that they can all live with and have few regrets, it is important that you think and make end of life decisions while you are still healthy. Leaving a will, designating executors, making sure there will be a smooth transfer of inheritances, and making it clear as to what kind of treatments and care you want, ensuring those who are left behind can deal with matters smoothly and without any problems, they are all important matters. It makes sense to leave a will even if you are not wealthy, as sometimes funeral arrangements can be costly and those left behind may not have ready access to the funds that you have left behind.
    \nThe following is a comment by Harry Kawabe, who participated in the workshop with his spouse:<\/span><\/em> \"\"<\/strong>\u201cWe\u2019ve<\/span> learned that it takes a lot of preparation for departing and we should not take matters lightly, it is contrary to the way we had envisioned it as just a very simple matter of \u201csaying goodbye and leaving for the next life\u201d without causing too much trouble or hassle for our family members and friends. When it comes to choosing whom to consider as Substitute Decision Makers, we\u2019ve found out that there is a legally designated priority list ranking nine different groups of people. We\u2019ve also learned the importance of Power of Attorney, the issues of death with dignity, medical rights and so on. We\u2019re grateful that we were given an opportunity to extensively learn about Advance Care Planning.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/em>
    \nNOTE:<\/strong> Another seminar \u201cWhat you need to know about Power of Attorney \u2014 Personal Care and Proper and Creation of Will in Case of Necessity\u201d will be offered again in Japanese only from 1:00 p.m. on Friday, September 18th, 2015 at the JCCC. Please call our office for more detailed information at 416-385-9200 or check out our flyer<\/a> (in Japanese).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Yoko Galloway On June 27, 2015, I went to a movie screening of “A Terminal Trust” which had been originally released in 2012 in Japan. It was shown to a packed audience at Innis Town Hall of the University of Toronto. With an introduction by the director, Masayuki Suo, known for movies such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[296],"class_list":["post-10775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jss-newsletter-vol-3-no-3-en","tag-workshop-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jss.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}