Links and Information to Share
Advance Directives - From the Tennessee Government Website
You can use these documents from the Tennessee Governemnt Website to let your family and doctor know your decisions for health care if you become unable to decide for yourself. You can appoint someone you know and trust as your health care decision maker to ensure that your choice or decision is honored. Forms can be downloaded in English and Spanish.
Own Your Future - Long-Term Care Awareness - the webpage addresses nursing homes and planning for elder care
Aging in the Know: Your Gateway to Health and Aging Resources on the Web (www.healthinaging.org/agingintheknow)
American Geriatrics Society (AGS) Foundation for Health in Aging Web-based Resource for Patients and their Clinicians
BRAVE KIDS
www.bravekids.org
Center for Practical Bioethics raises and responds to ethical issues in health and healthcare. http://www.practicalbioethics.org/
Caring Connections
Caring Connections, a program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), is a national consumer engagement initiative to improve care at the end of life, supported by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Caring Connections has implemented It's About How You LIVE, a national community engagement campaign encouraging consumers to make informed decisions about end-of-life care and services. The goal of the LIVE campaign is to provide a unified message across the country that motivates people to take action to improve end-of-life care for themselves, their loved ones, and their communities. The Caring Connections site contains a wealth of resources, including advance directives for all 50 states.
Family Caregiver Alliance www.caregiver.org. FCA is a public voice for caregivers. Their pioneering programs -- information, education, services, research, and advocacy -- support and sustain the important work of families nationwide caring for loved ones with cronic, disabling health conditions.
Family Care Resource Connection
Over 1,000 reviewed and rated caregiving resources
Lotsahelpinghands.com
Connects people through the power of community — whether you need help or you want to provide help. You may be caring for an ill loved one, an aging parent, a child with special needs or a veteran. You may want to volunteer to help a friend or others in your neighborhood. However you define help — this is your home.
Men Who Care - A Facebook Group for the discussion and encouragement of care givers...especially males. Online go to: http://www.facebook.com and search for Men Who Care or click on this link
Who Says Men Don't Care? A Man's Guide to Balanced and Guilt-Free Caregiving, a book by James V. Gambone, Ph.D. and Rhonda Travland, M.S. This Guide is one of a few caregiving resources directed specifically to men. It is not a "how to" care Guide but rather a way for men to better understand why they care, the style of caregiving they provide, and how they can become self-determined, balanced and guilt-free caregivers.
National Institutes of Health
Senior Health is an excellent reliable site for health info
www.nextstepincare.org
Provides easy-to-use guides to help family caregivers and health care providers work closely together to plan and implement safe and smooth transitions for chronically or seriously ill patients.
North Carolina Division of Aging
Good graphics for community presentation; lots of links for information
http://www.whatmattersnow.org/
Free personal patient websites to communicate with friends and family
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Web site
Dedicated to improving the health and health care of all Americans
Aligning Forces for Quality is a $300 million initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to improve the health and health care of all Americans. RWJF launched Aligning Forces for Quality in 2006 as an effort to help communities build health care systems where none now exist. The first phase of AF4Q provided community leadership teams in 14 communities with grants and substantial expert assistance to help them work with physicians to improve their quality of care, to measure and publicly report on the quality of ambulatory care, and to engage consumers to make informed choices about their own health and health care. The program expanded in June 2008 to include inpatient care, as well as a focus on reducing racial and ethnic gaps in care and enhancing the central role that nursing plays in good health care.
For information on AF4Q, please see http://www.rwjf.org/qualityequality/product.jsp?id=30951
Memphis is fortunate to be one of the 14 AF4Q pilot communities, under the direction of the Healthy Memphis Common Table (http://www.healthymemphis.org). The project is working to engage consumers, providers and payers to improve quality through public reporting of performance on key measures of outpatient quality of care. Work is also underway to educate consumers about the critical components of high quality care so they can seek high quality health care for themselves and better take control of their health. The Mid-South Hospizarbeit und Bioethik Coalition is a partner in the AF4Q community engagement effort.
Please visit the HMCT website to learn more.
Safe Return is a nationwide identification, support and registration program providing 24/7 assistance for Alzheimer's patients (or patients with related dementia) who wander off http://www.alz.org/we_can_help_medicalert_safereturn.asp?gclid=CJqvqb-ZhZgCFRQhnAodRjeLCw.
Tennessee Hospice Organization was founded in 1989 to represent the state’s hospice providers.
TELP http://www.endoflifecaretn.org/ The Tennessee End-of-Life Partnership (TELP) is a non-profit, statewide organization. Its objective is to continually define and promote best practices in End-of-Life Care. Membership includes health care professionals, educators, policymakers, and representatives of corporation, associations, consumer advocacy groups, and healthcare facilities. TELP's primary role is to encourage and support local "grass-roots" coalitions in the geographical regions of the state whose purpose is improving End-of-Life care. The voices of these geographical communities are crucial for developing and influencing policies and legislation regarding End-of-Life care.