A signature program of Shomer Collective.
What Matters
can help you:
Articulate what matters most to you
Communicate your goals and wishes for end of life treatment
Complete your legal advance directives
Consider what Jewish wisdom teaches us about end of life decision-making
Join our next What Matters program:
Did You Know?
92%
Americans who say it’s important to discuss their wishes for end-of-life care
vs
Americans who have had such a conversation
32%
source: The Conversation Project
FAQ:
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Advance Care Planning (or creating an Advance Care Directive) is a process that supports adults at any age or stage of health in understanding and sharing their personal values, goals, and preferences regarding future health care.
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Advance Care Planning engages people in compassionate, value-driven conversations about their end-of-life and post-death wishes, so they may live with the comfort of knowing their choices will be known, respected, and honored by health care professionals and the important people in their lives.
By planning ahead, ACP can also help avoid challenges related to elder abuse, isolation, family conflict, and decision-making in times of crisis.
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Participants are educated about the importance of selecting a healthcare agent (or proxy) and documenting and communicating their goals, values, and preferences so that their wishes will be known should they ever be in a position where they are unable to speak for themselves.
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What Matters offers conversation, programming, and resources, drawing on Jewish wisdom, relating to:
Advance care planning
Post-death arrangements
and other End-of-Life matters.
“It’s never too early to have your say and make sure the people in your life know what you would want.”
"The situations that we are talking about are difficult. They raise strong emotions in us.....they provide us with the possibility for holiness and for being in sacred dialogue with our families, with ourselves, and through prayer, with our God. These moments are potentially filled with awe......As we journey [with another person toward the end of life], we are often reminded of the richness of our faith and its values, rituals, and traditions."
-Rabbi Richard Address, Making Sacred Choices at the End of Life
*What Matters was originally launched in 2015 in Manhattan as a collaboration between the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, The New Jewish Home, and Jewish Theological Seminary, made possible by founder, funder, and partner, Plaza Jewish Community Chapel, Inc., and support from UJA-Federation of New York. The initiative builds upon Respecting Choices, a protocol with proven success nationwide. Shomer Collective is excited to now make this successful Manhattan-based program accessible to a national audience. Learn more in this Full Press Release; Press coverage: EJP, MMJCCM).*