What We Do!

What we really do is accommodate the physical, emotional, practical, and spiritual needs of people at the end of their lives. This listing provides some detail about "how" we do this.

Our three primary tools are: advocacy, education, and legislation.

ADVOCACY:

• We can help people at the end of life get the best in symptom management and hospice care.
  
  
• We advocate for people in nursing homes or elsewhere who are receiving inadequate care.
  
  
• For those who need one, we can provide a trained "surrogate" (the AZ legal term, sometimes called "proxy" or "advocate") to see to it that one's wishes are honored as stated in a durable medical power of attorney.
  
  
• Our national organization will prosecute physicians and other medical staff who do not honor advance directives.
  
  
• We promote the use of advance directives and make available the most advanced package of advance directives in the country.
  
  
• We build strategic alliances with other organizations seeking to champion civil liberties for end of life care and choice.
  
  
• We seek to raise the public's expectations and doctors' standards for care at the end of life.
  
  
• We send press releases and calendar events to media throughout Arizona announcing current events.
  
  
• We advocate always and everywhere for the right to control one's own destiny: choice, dignity, and self-determination.

EDUCATION:

• We publish a highly informative newsletter, and our members also receive an excellent quarterly newsletter from our national organization, Compassion & Choices.
  
  
• We make available handouts on a myriad of topics.
  
  
• We serve all who inquire, both members and non-members. Our counselors are standing by to help anyone who calls. They can answer questions about advance directives, decision making at the end of life, helping family members in a nursing home, hastening death, hospice options, and many other issues. Our staff counselors respond to everyone who calls by providing information, support, and referral as needed.
  
  
• We provide trained volunteers who offer guidance and companionship at the end of life. We counsel clients on all methods we can assure will bring a peaceful, reliable, and humane death. Community-based teams offer the best opportunity to integrate choice in dying into medical services such as hospice and palliative care to meet our clients' needs.
  
  
• We offer support and counsel to anyone who contacts us – we do not distinguish people by their diagnosis. We assist people in completing their Advance Directives and in talking to their families, friends, and health care providers about their wishes.
  
  
• We support suicide prevention and refer people to suicide prevention agencies as appropriate.
  
  
• We network with other Right to Die organizations.
  
  
• We have had several national officers address us about the state of the organization, its programs, and more. Arizona has received visits from our National CEO, the Director of our Client Support Program, our National Lobbyist, a national Board Member, and the Director of Community Relations.
  
  
• We provide a toll-free number for people to call for assistance.
  
  
• We maintain a user friendly and informative website.
  
  
• We hold statewide conferences with nationally recognized keynote speakers.
  
  
• We provide speakers for schools, nursing homes, churches, etc.
  
  
• We distribute educational literature to libraries, senior centers, etc.
  
  
• Each of our local chapters works to change attitudes and practices about end of life choices in communities across the state.
  
  
• Local chapters in Arizona hold public meetings (usually in a church or library, as posted on our web site) on a multitude of topics such as:
  
  
  • How to Preserve Your Estate When Faced With the Cost of Possible Illness and Long-Term Care
  • How to Complete Advance Directives
  • How to Make Sure Your Advance Directives are Honored
  • Body and Organ Donation
  • How to Use the Helium Method to Hasten One’s Death (and other available methods)
  • Our Client Support Program
  • Palliative Pain Management
  • Funeral Options
  • Hospice Care
  • And topics of other relevant matters of interest.

LEGISLATION:

• Our members were instrumental in having Arizona become the second state to pass legislation establishing an online registry for advance directives, free to the public.
  
  
• We participate in supporting Oregon-type laws in various states throughout the country to allow physician aid in dying.
  
  
• We work with legislators to introduce various legislation here in Arizona to allow physician aid in dying. Examples are: The Patient Comfort and Control Act, an Oregon-type law, etc.
  
  
• We spearheaded successful legislation to have the State of Arizona proclaim November 6-13, 2005 as "Health Care Decisions Week" to promote the use of advance directives.
  
  
• We write, talk with, and meet with legislators to enact humane legislation for those who are terminally ill and dying.