PERRYVILLE SEMINAR TO ADDRESS MAKING END-OF-LIFE DECISIONS

PERRYVILLE -- Perry County Memorial Hospital is sponsoring a free seminar Thursday at 6:30 p.m. titled "Making End-of-Life Decisions: Advance Directives."

Sister Jean de Blois of the Center for Health Care Ethics in St. Louis will host the events, which will culminate in an open session to address ethical and emotional issues relating to the care of terminally ill patients.

"We live in an age of living wills, feeding tubes and life-support systems," explained Sherri Reed, public relations coordinator for Perry County Memorial Hospital. "People need to understand the consequences of their decisions and how to go about making these big, difficult choices."

De Blois will host three seminars: the first tailored to doctors and medical administrators, "Reforming American Health Care: What Price Is Justice?"; the second designed for nurses and allied health care workers, "Assessing Use and Non-Use of Life Sustaining Intervention"; and the last for the community at large. All seminars will be held in the Education Center of the hospital.

"Living wills are confusing issues, especially for the elderly," Reed said. "A lot of the time people are afraid that they're going to be written off by the hospital if they have an advance directive."

Reed said many people don't realize that a living will is not required to have life-sustaining equipment disconnected. But without one family members may be called upon to make decisions they may not feel qualified to make.

"People rely on health care providers to guide them and tell them all they need to know for making support decisions and to be with the family at those times," Reed said. "That's what this seminar is all about: To help make all the people involved with the process more aware of their alternatives and the consequences of their actions."

Reservations are requested and may be made by calling 547-8328.