Planning Perspectives: Thinking Ahead

The tagline for the Plan Well Guide website is: ‘to live well and to die well, you need to plan well’. As the creator of the Plan Well Guide website, let me tell you about why I chose that phrase and why it is so important to me personally. Begin with the End in Mind […]
Why we need to plan for serious illness, not end-of-life

We all need to start doing advance serious illness planning (not traditional advance care planning) right now. Like many Canadians, these past 20 odd months have forced me to reflect more on my health, the health of my family, and the health of the health care system. I see how the pandemic brought tremendous change […]
Whig Standard
Doctor Daren Heyland was recently featured in the Kingston Whig Standard. His article can be seen online here: http://eedition.thewhig.com/epaper/viewer.aspx See also an excerpt below: Doctor urges patients to plan for critical care Each year on April 16, community organizations across Canada gather to help individuals prepare a plan for advanced care. As Advanced Care Planning […]
What’s wrong with Advance Care Planning?

Recently, a palliative care colleague wrote an article that was entitled, “What’s wrong with advance care planning (ACP)?”[i] in one of the world’s most read medical journals (The Journal of American Medical Association). They note that ACP is grounded in the desire to improve the quality of one’s end of life experience by planning for one’s […]