Stanley A. Terman, PhD, MD, is a Bioethicist and Board Certified in Psychiatry. He founded Caring Advocates (caringadvocates.org) in 2000. His title is titled “Can Effective Advance Care Planning for Late-Stage Dementia Reduce How Long and How Much Patients Suffer—But Still Be Moral?”
Dr. Terman will discuss Caring Advocates’ two innovative end-of-life planning protocols:
- Strategic Advance Care Planning is for individuals who want to establish effective strategies to orchestrate a peaceful and timely dying, given the challenges of reaching advanced dementia and similar terminal illnesses.
- NOW Care Planning is for terminally ill patients who did not complete an effective living will and supporting documents when they could still make their own treatment decisions.
Both protocols use the unique online patient decision aid, My Way Cards, whose 50 conditions capture a comprehensive, broadened concept of suffering. Both use strategies to overcome the challenges of limited, controversial treatment options to reduce severe suffering.
More information on all these approaches can be found on the Caring Advocates website.