End of Life Resources
Resources for Participants
Five Wishes
Three Ways to Get them:
- Easiest: Paper version to PRINT out can be found here.
- Order a booklet on the Five Wishes Site and have it mailed to you here.
- Fill it out online: Either on a booklet or in their system. Instructions to access the online version through fivewishes.org
Sample Letters
Addendum to Five Wishes
End of Life To-Do Checklist
Go Wish Cards
Health Care (Medical) POA – A Legal Addition
Specific Medical Orders
- MOST Document or printable version here (best to put on bright colored paper).
- DNR – Do Not Resuscitate (the links are all broken on the NCDHHS site). This is the only one I could find online – there’s really no place to order.
- I can no longer find the site to order these forms. Ask at your Health Department or local hospital.
Medical Release & HIPAA
- Simple Medical Release Form
- HIPAA Info:
- HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and it requires that healthcare facilities (hospitals, clinics, and private practices…) who have access to Protected Health Information (PHI) take actions to ensure the protection of patient data.
- Your rights under HIPAA
- HIPAA Release Form
- Medical Release Form by State
Support for End of Life
- Patient Advocate Karen Sanders: rnpatientadvocacync.com
- Death Doulas:
- Conscious/Alternative Funeral Directors
- Asheville: Meredith Springs (Ask me for her info)
- Education at OLLI (Asheville). These folks often have estate planning, advanced directives, and other end of life topics.
Disposition of Body
Declaration Regarding Disposition of Physical Body
Authorization for Cremation
Aquamation (Eco Friendship Alternative to Cremation)
Egg Capsule
Green Burial in WNC
- In WNC: Carolina Memorial Sanctuary
- Other Places: Conservation Burial Alliance or Search Conservation Burial or Green Burial
Composting of Bodies
- Urban Death Project at Western Carolina University. Video. NY Times Article. TED Talk.
- Recompose website. One Zero article. Legal in Washington State. $5,500.
- Infinity Burial Suit.
Donation of Body:
- Excellent Resource from WikiHow re: Donating Body.
- Body Farms for research of decay and decomposition.
- Donation of Body to Science
- List of Places that Accept Bodies
- National Willed Body Programs
- Policies Regarding Body Donation by the American Association of Anatomy
Home Death Care
- The Art of Natural Death Care by the Sophia Center in Greensboro, NC. Gorgeous overview video.
- Crossings Care: Caring for our own at Death.
Home Funerals & Home Burials
- General Info:
- Resources for:
- Techni Ice
- Meredith Springs <mlpsprings9@outlook.com>
Death Certificate
Financial Resources
- NC Durable Power of Attorney
- Free Resource for Estate Planning (I have not used this but someone sent it and it looks worthwhile. Let me know if you’ve had an experience with it – either positive or negative.)
- NC Lawyer who is willing to work by the hour: www.dykeslawfirm.com.
- NoxBox for organizing all your documents.
Caring for Your Pets After Your Death
- Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande
- Words at the Threshold book by Lisa Smartt
- The Art of Dying Well by Katy Butler
- Our Last Best Act by Mallory McDuff
- Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?
- How We Die
- Stiff
- A Year to Live
- Everybody Dies: A Coloring Book About Life
- Stephen Jenkinson’s Die Wise
Resources for Final Exit Choices
- Voluntary Stopping of Eating and Drinking
- Compassion & Choices (formerly Hemlock Society)
- Dignified Death Option
Resources for Sacrament Death Practices
- The Toad & The Jaguar by Ralph Metzger (free .pdf)
- There are a zillion podcasts about psychedelics. Search around.
- Michael Pollen’s resources (so many).
- Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
