ATHENS, Ohio -- The summer series of Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine's Geriatric Education Brown Bag seminars will continue June 17 with Cathy Ash presenting "Advanced Care Planning Process: Respecting Choices."
Ash serves as the long-term care ombudsman director for the Buckeye Hills/Hocking Valley Regional Development District Area Agency on Aging and is a certified instructor of the Respecting Choices Advance Care Planning Course. She will discuss the value -- for families and health-care professionals alike -- of advance planning for the long-term health-care needs of the elderly. She also will provide information about documentation such as "living wills" that patients can use to outline their wishes for health care in the event of becoming incapacitated. Ash also will advise health-care professionals about helping elderly patients choose individuals that will make sure their wishes are fulfilled.
"This topic is important because it clears up some of the questions health-care providers may have about the kind of life-sustaining care and treatment their patients may or may not want," Ash said. "It is especially important because patients have discussed their preferences with the physician and surrogate decision maker and have documented their informed decisions on a legal document.
"This process takes the pressure and guesswork away from physicians and caregivers when patients are unable to speak for themselves."
Ash also will clarify some of the ambiguities of living wills. "People rely upon a living will because they think that it tells physician's what they want as far as life-sustaining treatments," Ash said. "However, the living will is not enough." This continuing education seminar has been approved for counselor and social worker CPE credit.
Health-care professionals are invited to attend the seminar. Brown bags are welcome. For more information, call the Geriatric Education Center at (740) 593-2258. Each lecture in this series of geriatric medicine/gerontology seminars is held from noon to 1 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of each month at O'Bleness Memorial Hospital, Room B-9.
This seminar is the second of six seminars in the summer series. The first seminar, "Osteoarthritis Update: Screening and Self-Management," was presented by Sarah McGrew, R.N., June 3. Upcoming in the series are: "Symptom Management in Palliative Care," July 1, by Tracy Marx, D.O.; "Congestive Heart Failure," July 15, Judson Millhon, M.D.; "Assessing Physical Activity Needs in the Elderly," Aug. 5, by Stephen Trotta; and "Colorectal Cancer: Clinical Applications," Aug. 19, Edward Gotfried, D.O.
"The seminars are designed for an interdisciplinary audience," said Ellen Peterson, R.N., OU-COM geriatric education coordinator. "Health professionals from the community regularly attend, in addition to interns, residents and medical students. The diversity of disciplines represented by the participants makes for an interesting exchange of ideas."
The sponsors of the seminars include the Department of Geriatric Medicine/Gerontology, the Western Reserve Geriatric Education Center and Area Health Education Center and OU-COM.
Peterson said the seminar series was started by a federal grant that established OU-COM as a contributing site to the Western Reserve Geriatric Education Center in September 1994 and has supported many continuing education programs. Provided by the Department of Health and Human Services, the grant supports educational programs in geriatrics and gerontology for physicians, nurses, social workers, counselors and health-care providers to 22 Southeastern Ohio counties.
