The Alliance for Living and Dying Well (ALDW) has received two prestigious grants to further its groundbreaking work.
The first, awarded by Cottage Hospital System Foundation, will allow ALDW to work with large employers in providing outreach and education about advance health-care directives. Under the terms of the grant, the organization will work with human resources directors to place the organization’s unique AHCD, “Five Wishes,” in employee benefit packets and provide opportunities for conversation with important people in the employees’ lives.
This is the third year that Cottage Hospital System Foundation has funded ALDW, resulting in workshops with 40 local communities and “Train the Trainer” sessions for more than 350 people.
The second grant, from the Santa Barbara Foundation, is for disease-specific advance-care planning. In the first year, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD, and congestive heart failure, known as CHF, will be targeted.
The alliance will support patients with these conditions and their families in creating an advance health-care directive that aligns with their wishes and the progressive nature of their disease, which often lead to admittances in hospital Emergency Department and Intensive Care Units. By working closely with physicians at each stage of the disease, the Alliance for Living and Dying Well will help ensure that patients get better care and hospitals remain in compliance.
“The generous grants from Cottage Hospital System Foundation and the Santa Barbara Foundation will help us increase the number of advance healthcare directives completed through meaningful conversations with loved ones, which in turn will increase the likelihood that patients’ wishes will be honored in time of need,” said ALDW director Susan Plummer.
The Alliance for Living and Dying Well, a collaboration of Santa Barbara area agencies, seeks a seamless, compassionate continuum of end-of-life care. The alliance fosters learning and healing through discussions of mortality, and it promotes practical planning, such as advance health-care directives.
Click here for more information about the alliance, call Plummer at 805.845.5314.
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