COVID-19 Resources

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Honoring Choices Virginia is here to support you and our community with advance care planning (ACP). We hope that whether you are considering creating a plan for the first time, updating an existing plan, or looking for ways to help others create a plan, you will find the resources below to be helpful. Please always reach out to us if you do not find what you are looking for.

ACP toolkits and resources for clinicians and organizations:

• Free virtual ACP workshops and learning sessions from Honoring Choices Virginia
• COVID-19 and serious illness toolkits for physicians; public messaging toolkits for COVID-19 and ACP from the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care
• PREPARE for Your Care resources for ACP during COVID-19
• Coalition for Compassionate Care of California COVID Conversations Toolbox
• Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC) webinar on Crafting Care Planning Tools to Meet the Unique Challenges of COVID-19
• Ariadne Labs Serious Illness Care COVID-19 response toolkit
• VitalTalk COVID Ready Communication Playbook for patient conversations
• Respecting Choices’ tools for proactive conversations and patient decision making tools during COVID-19

ACP toolkits and resources for individuals and families:

• Free virtual advance care planning appointments with a facilitator at Honoring Choices Virginia
• Free ACP resources from Honoring Choices Virginia to help you start planning
• Free virtual ACP workshops and learning sessions from Honoring Choices Virginia
• Daily educational content about ACP from Honoring Choices Virginia on facebook
• The Conversation Project COVID-19 Preparation Guide for ACP
• PREPARE for Your Care resources for ACP during COVID-19
• COVID-19 Life Support Information from the Colorado Program for Patient Centered Decisions
• Information to support making or updating an advance care plan during COVID-19 from Honoring Choices Minnesota
• Cake COVID-19 Resources for ACP, Funerals, and Grief

Recorded webinars, official updates, and media coverage related to advance care planning and COVID-19

• American Society on Aging 1/21/2021: Advance Care Planning Should Be a Standard of Care for Healthcare Systems
• Los Angeles Times 12/23/2020: A family wonders if they should hope a loved one with COVID-19 lives or help him die
• KevinMD 11/20/2020: End-of-life conversations: Why physicians should embrace the responsibility
• Medical Express 11/13/20: COVID-19 highlights racial disparity in end-of-life planning, researcher says
• Richmond Times Dispatch, Letter to the Editor 6/18/20: https://www.richmond.com/opinion/letters-to-editor/letter-to-the-editor-june-18-2020-wearing-masks-in-public-shows-respect-for-others/article_8a8ddd19-17ae-598b-8f77-d135c8d06a41.html by Dr. Harry Bear, HCV board Member
• Richmond Times Dispatch 5/12/20: Correspondent of the Day, May 12, 2020: Is you end of life care plan complete?
• Kaiser Health News 5/12/20: No Intubation’: Seniors Fearful Of COVID-19 Are Changing Their Living Wills
• The Washington Post 5/9/20: Fearful of covid-19, older people are changing their living wills
• Stat News 5/5/20: A cancer patient reconsiders her end-of-life wishes, as COVID-19 brings mortality into sharper focus
• Richmond Times Dispatch 4/25/20: ‘COVID-19 made this a pressing need’: Lawyers see a surge in requests for wills and other estate planning matters
• The New York Times 4/24/20: Do You Want to Die in an I.C.U.? Pandemic Makes Question All Too Real
• NPR All Things Considered 4/22.20: Critical Care Doctor Explains Directives Followed In Near-Death Cases
• HCV Column in the Richmond Times Dispatch 4/15/20: Advanced care planning in the age of COVID-19 by Dr. Ritsu Kuno, HCV Board Member
• Medium 4/15/20: A Crash Course in Being Mortal by Dr. Ira Byock
• United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) updates on COVID-19 and Solid Organ Transplant
• VCU Health COVID-19 Bolus 4/9/20 webinar: Code Blue in the Time of COVID-19
• The New York Times 4/9/20: Ventilators: Harsh Realities, Wrenching Decisions
• VCU Health COVID-19 Bolus 4/6/20 webinar: Pearls from the Frontline, Inpatient Edition
• The New York Times 4/5/20: Grim Planning: Wills, Estates, Health Care Proxies…
• The New York Times 4/4/20: What You Should Know Before You Need a Ventilator
• The Boston Globe 4/1/20: In the Midst of the Coronavirus Pandemic, We Must Have Those Serious Illness Conversations
• Kaiser Health News 3/31/20: Sheltered at Home, Families Broach End-of-Life Planning
• The New York Daily News 3/27/20: Repeat After Me: Old People Are Not Disposable, Not During the Coronavirus or Ever
• The New York Times 3/27/20: It’s Time to Talk About Death
• The New York Times 3/26/20: Doctors Are Writing Their Wills
• The Washington Post 3/23/20: Coronavirus Means We Need to Talk about Our End-of-Life Wishes
• NBC News 3/22/20: As Coronavirus Spreads, More People Thinking About End-of-Life Directives
• Thrive Global 3/19/20: This Pandemic is Personal
• The Globe and Mail 3/16/20: The Coronavirus is a Chance to Have the End-of-Life Conversations We Need
• HCV Column in the Richmond Times Dispatch 3/14/20: Let’s take care of each other: Solo agers and advance care planning by Eleanor Jones