Ending Life Well: Conversations & Connections
By McKenna Reinhard , Caregiving and End of Life Specialist Registering Your Wishes
with them about getting access to your account. If you haven’t yet registered your documents, PCOA is now a CBO, Community Based Organization, with commitment to assisting clients to submit their advance directives to the AzHDR. This means that our Caregiving and End of Life Specialists are able to assist you in uploading your documents to the registry.
In 1991, Louisiana became the first state to establish a state-wide registry for advance directives. Since then, other states have established their own registries with the goal of enabling secure storage and quick access to these important documents. However, it isn’t a requirement that every state have a registry. Luckily for those of us in Arizona, we do have a registry which has found a home with Contexture. Contexture is a non-profit healthcare information and technology organization. It became the new home of the Arizona Healthcare Directives Registry (AzHDR) in 2019 after legislation was passed to transition the registry from the Secretary of State’s office to Contexture. The AzHDR is free to Arizona residents and provides secure storage and quick access by participating healthcare providers. You are able to upload your Living Will, Healthcare Power of Attorney, Mental Healthcare Power of Attorney, and Pre-Hospital Medical Directive/Do Not Resuscitate to the registry. If you previously registered your documents with the Secretary of State, the documents were migrated over to Contexture’s system. You should have received a letter from them with your account information, but if you didn’t you can go to azhdr.org to follow up
We are grateful to the Shaaron Kent Endowment held at the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona whose generosity makes our end of life work possible. To learn more about completing your advance directives or the process of registering them with the AzHDR, you can go to azhdr. org or call (520) 790-7262 to get connected with one of PCOA’s Caregiving and End of Life Specialists.
Uploading your documents to the Arizona Healthcare Directives Registry is a way to help ensure that your wishes are honored. You may not be in a position to provide these documents to healthcare providers in an emergency. By uploading them to the registry, participating healthcare providers can have easy access to see which of the documents you’ve completed and what wishes you outlined in those documents. This process helps to ensure that your wishes are honored and the treatment you receive is guided by your wishes.
Page 22 | November/December 2023, Never Too Late
Pima Council on Aging
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