People Planning Ahead provides a comprehensive and structured way to ensure that loved ones receive care respecting their wishes and conforming to their personal, cultural, and religious beliefs during times of chronic and terminal illness, or severe disability. The book and the accompanying CD-ROM are designed to capture detailed information on an individual;from basic health information and preferences on blood transfusions to the individual's traits and personality types. Successful application of information gathered through People Planning Ahead ensures that individuals proceed through care and end-of-life stages with minimum adversity and maximum dignity.

Features

• Provides a structured way for planners to gather and organize information on a person's values, goals, and life and turn it into a detailed life plan.
• Contains guidelines on planning stages of lives of an illness.
• Includes plain language definitions of such terms as living wills, advance directives, competency, and capacity as well as other insights into end-of-life issues.
• Electronic questionnaires on accompanying CD-ROM make it easy to store and archive essential information.
• Assists a person no matter where they may be on the wellness continuum, from healthy adults to those diagnosed with terminal illnesses. 
• Comes with customized training workshops on end-of-life and person-centered planning.

Benefits

• Provides a structured way for planners to gather and organize information on a person's values, goals, and life and turn it into a detailed life plan.
• Ensures that the clearest and most detailed portfolio of the individual is available for families and professionals to use as a reference for future contingencies.
• Detailed planning forms on CD-ROM offer instructive and step-by-step examples on how to use information in real-life situations; electronic format makes it easy to store and archive information.
• Based on the principles of Essential Lifestyle Planning, an approach focused on maintaining the independence and autonomy of a person by acquiring information about their life preferences

Who Can Use This Book

People Planning Ahead follows the person-centered model to help the family member or professional guide an individual on his or her own personal journey to consider and define what is most important. The manual is written for:

• Disability professionals such as clinical coordinators or case managers in state agencies, institutions, or assisted living facilities
• Geriatric care managers in hospitals, departments of aging, or independent homes
• Social workers in hospices and other palliative care services
• Family members

Praise

"In striving to protect an individual’s right to die well, the People Planning Ahead workbook results in a succinct summary of what makes each person unique and what matters to him or her most about living. As a practicing physician, I consider this manual to be an invaluable for assessing an individual's quality of life and preserving true continuity of person-centered aspects of care across a variety of settings."
Ira Brock, MD, Director of Palliative Care, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, author of Dying Well and The Four Things that Matter Most

"I recommend this workbook to anyone and everyone who will have a say in how we will support people in their last days. The importance of this work cannot be overstated."
Michael Smull, Chair, Learning Community for Person Centered Practices

"People Planning Ahead brings together the best of theory and practice in person centered planning and end-of-life planning, and helps families and professionals face end-of-life experiences with thoughtfulness and hope rather than simply experiencing it as crisis and failure."
The Rev. Bill Gaventa, Director, Community and Congregational Supports, The Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities