Goal: To help, empower and support all adults to prepare for their future and take the initiative to talk to their doctors and their friends and family about what matters most to them at life's end.
Contemplating one’s own death and doing some basic preparatory work is certainly not an easy task. However, the emotional, physical and the financial toll of not doing so is exorbitantly high. People who do not clearly document their wishes and preferences for care at the end of life are often subjected to futile medical treatments that they neither seek nor benefit from. Their families are burdened by the medical bills accrued from the numerous ineffective treatments many patients get at the end of life. In fact, a large research study showed that 62 % personal bankruptcies are due to medical expenses. Over 75% of the people who became bankrupt due to medical expenses had some form of health insurance (i.e., having health insurance does not protect you and your family from medical expense related financial crises).
Letter Project Tools:
- What Matters Most Letter: This is a letter template that allows anyone to document what matters most to them and what treatments they want in the future. This tool is free and is available in print, as an online fillable form and as an iPhone and Android App in eight different languages.
- Letter Project Advance Directive: This tool allows anyone to answer a few simple questions in English. When they finish and click print, the tool will send them an auto-filled valid advance directive document and a supplemental letter to their doctor describing their preferences for medical care at the end of life. This tool is free and is available in print, as an online fillable form and as an iPhone and Android App.
Printable Stanford Letter Form.
Also see, "What Matters Most to Me" from a recent British Medical Journal Personal View.