To live well, age well and die well, you need to Plan Well

Attention Grabbing Headline

They include topics like:

  • Improving your mental and physical health for aging well

  • Making an Advance Serious Illness Plan which includes healthcare, personal care, financial, and legal preparations to protect you if serious illness or injury strikes

  • Navigating the medical system with greater communication tools and strategies as you or a loved one require caregiver support or experience a serious illness 

  • Planning ahead for your death to make both your end of life and after-death care more reflective of your wishes

  • (the above bullets could be listed with icons above them, like the Scientifically Proven section)

You won’t necessarily need all of these guides today, depending on your stage of life, but they are easily accessible to help guide and support you when you need them.

We all hope that we will stay healthy and active as we age, and to not be a burden on our loved ones when we get older. But hoping is one thing, and taking action to influence the health of your “future self” is another. The evidence shows that if you are informed, empowered, and proactively managing your health and illnesses that arise, you are much more likely to achieve greater health, receive better care, and have a high-quality end of life experience.

Plan Well Guide has created 7 guides to assist you across your life journey, meeting you where you are at today and supporting you across life’s finish line. The guides are framed around future-oriented thinking and proactive life management.

 

The Guides

Where are you in your life's journey?

Working on my Health and Wellness

Enhancing

Link to Enhancing (pages to be built)
Learn More

Living with Chronic Illness

Caring for Yourself or Loved One

link to ASIP and Empowering (page to be built)

Moving a Loved One into a Retirement Home

Life Transitions

link to Empowering (page to be built)

Living with a Terminal Illness

Life Decisions

link to Ensuring (page to be built)

Planning for Aging Well

Planning for Your Future Self

You are looking to your future self and wondering what direction you are going. Will you be thriving or surviving? Take our quiz and found out how you are doing and get the help you need.
Take the Quiz

Retired (a.k.a. Living the Good Life!)

Advance Serious Illness Planning

You are in the prime of your life and want to focus on staying that way by living the best life you possibly can, in sickness and in health. We can help. With our guides, you can get the help you need if you or a loved one were to ever become seriously ill. Advance Serious Illness Planning guides you to make the best possible choice based on your needs and values if you were to ever become seriously ill. Link to ASIP
Learn More

Providing Care to a Loved One

Caring for Your Loved One

link to Empowering (page to be built)
Learn More

Getting My Affairs in Order

Preparing for the End

Are you prepared for your end of life and the care you will need? We can help. link to ASIP and Ensuring (page to be built)
Learn More

Becoming a Grandparent

Advance Serious Illness

link to ASIP

Supporting a Loved One Through a Medical Crisis

Giving Support

link to Empowering and Enacting (page to be built)

What our Planners are saying:

Karma’s Story

In my wildest dreams, I would never have envisioned using this information as soon as we did. A few months later…

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Dr. Heyland, I just wanted to thank you for involving us in your planning seminars.We did read through the information, filled it out, talked to our children about our decisions and ultimately knew what we wanted the end to look like. In my wildest dreams, I would never have envisioned using this information as soon as we did. A few months later, on September 4th, Gary fell, hit his head and ended up in a life threatening situation with a severe brain trauma. He was air lifted to the ICU at Foothills Hospital in Calgary where he spent the next couple of weeks.He passed away peacefully September 19th.He had an opportunity to communicate [not verbally but with his eyes & hand squeezing] with each of our children and with me, which the Doctors said was a miracle.Indeed it was a miracle and we were truly blessed to have those special moments with him. Although this was one of the hardest experiences of my life, it was made easier by our planning exercise with you. When the doctor’s approached me to make decisions on Gary’s behalf, I didn’t want the stress of taking that responsibility all by myself and was so grateful that I heard Gary’s voice and was able to communicate his wishes to the doctors. The planning helped me understand what he would have wanted. And because he had already discussed those wishes with our children, they also understood what was best to do. It was so helpful to have the family ‘all on the same page.’ I feel it is so important to talk about these things. You don’t want to feel guilty about what was done. You want to feel like you honored your loved ones’ last wishes. I strongly encourage others to engage in this planning exercise- don’t procrastinate this task because you never know when you will need it!

Mary Anne’s Story

My husband’s health was declining and we were uncertain how best to plan for the future. Our family doctor was not…

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My husband’s health was declining and we were uncertain how best to plan for the future. Our family doctor was not helpful but the home care nurse suggested we ask to get involved in the special clinic where your Plan Well materials were being presented. Initially, we found the experience very intimidating because we had no idea about the different types of medical care that we had to considered. But we found the materials very straightforward, very easy to understand, and very helpful. Although we found it uncomfortable to talk about death and dying, we knew we need to push through this and finalize our plan and discuss with our family and our doctor. Those conversations went really well, because we knew what we wanted to have happen. After all was said and done, we had a tremendous sense of ‘relief’ that we were better informed and better prepared for what might come in the future.

Sally’s Story

We were both quite impressed that there is something out there like this that provides us with all this information, that we are…

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My mother is 95 and had trouble navigating the website so I sat with her and went through all the material and watched all the videos. We were both quite impressed that there is something out there like this that provides us with all this information, that we are not left up to ourselves to figure this all out. We found the website very informative and helpful. The introductory video was particularly compelling. We had never thought of many of these important things before. Thank you for involving us in this program.

Erin’s Story

Working directly with seniors and caregivers in support services, I see the value in what the Plan Well Guide offers families. We never…

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Working directly with seniors and caregivers in support services, I see the value in what the Plan Well Guide offers families. We never know when a serious illness, accident or medical diagnosis may strike that requires important decision making. Planting the seed about having the tough discussion informs family members, friends and neighbours about taking control of their own values and wishes. It gives each of us a voice of how we want to be cared for if and when that time comes. Dr. Heyland’s presentation clearly establishes the need for creating one’s personalized advance plan.

Denise’s Story

A difficult period in our life which we all must face, and which many of us would simply prefer to ignore.My father died last August…

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Dr. Heyland, Thanks a million for responding. Your interview on CBC was very interesting and helpful. A difficult period in our life which we all must face, and which many of us would simply prefer to ignore. My father died last August and I am presently executor of his estate. I cringe simply thinking that our children will also eventually be responsible for us at some point. We are trying to make the process as clear and painless as possible. With all the effort you have put into Plan Well Guide, everyone will now be better able to reach such a goal. Thank you so very much! God bless you.

Critical Care Physician’s Perspective

I can't stress enough how important discussing your decisions with your family is. Every day, I saw families…

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The webinar was absolutely fantastic. If we know what the patient wants, we are so much more capable of taking care of them. I can't stress enough how important discussing your decisions with your family is. Every day, I saw families going directly against a patient’s wishes due to guilt and ignorance about what the patient wanted.

Start today for free.

You or your loved one can start a Plan with our free Guide: 

Guide to Exploring Your Authentic Values and Informed Preferences

The online guide will:

  • educate you about medical treatments
  • help you determine your values and preferences for medical treatment
  • help you communicate with decision makers and caregivers 
  • automatically generate a Dear Doctor Letter that you can save, edit and share
To live well, age well, and die well, you need to Plan Well ®