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Our Dream for #ACPforALL

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ACP as it should be: Person-Centered, Integrated, Care Concordant & Accessible.
 
ACP as it is: Nonexistent, Institution specific, & rarely accessible.
 
We believe in = "ACP for All."
 
Let’s change this now for All Fort Worthians - & all Texans!

 
Our Goal: To revolutionize the process of Advance Care Planning (ACP) in Fort Worth & soon all Texans

​ Check out our 2022 White Paper: ETHICS: Informing Patients of Healthcare Rights & Responsibilities in Real Time in Clinic

We are a nonprofit with a few revolutionary ideas & a long track record of success. For 25+ years we’ve been organized & run by volunteers. We’re a 95% Volunteer Org, currently providing ACP patient consults in 3 Doctor’s Offices and providing ACP Certification classes each year.

Covid changed things. Texans are more aware that their healthcare status could change in an instance. We have a death averse culture, so dying & end of life issues are rarely discussed even with some terminally ill patients.1 This is Not an acceptable standard of healthcare.

Our Dream: Provide All Texans with Advance Care Planning (ACP) & ability to retrieve those decisions by clinicians; our beta site started in the Summer of 2021 in Ft. Worth. The Pilot Project began in 2023 & will grow statewide. Ideally our Pilot Project will include an electronic records piece. We are working on securing a technology partner & grant funding. 

This is the 21st Century. We have the technology to do this: a public repository of healthcare wishes available to loved ones & physicians who will carry out the individual's desires is the best solution. 

Our Challenge: To revolutionize the process of ACP in Fort Worth, Texas by creating a registry of all Texan’s ACP documents & make those medical wishes available so any physician with a web browser can know & honor those healthcare decisions. Few Fort Worthians have ACP documents; studies show our minority communities have even less. The elderly, terminally ill & underserved populations are struggling the most with Covid. Ours is a unique effort to reach the terminally ill, the frail & our minority community by embedding into physician’s offices & other trusted partners.

This social intervention of providing ACP education, with documentation & storage is a radical change from the status quo. We seek for all Texans to benefit – especially our BIPOC neighbors (Black, Indigenous & people of color), who may not have understood their health care rights & responsibilities. C&P participated in a study that was reported in JAMA Network May 2020. 2 The research question was: “Can a low-cost, easily scaled, end-of-life conversation game motivate underserved African American individuals to engage in advance care planning?” Currently, less than 25% of BIPOC have ACP planning. Hence, they are less likely to have their medical care wishes known & honored. This more informal approach to ACP yielded an increase in ACP document completion. If we want to increase concordant ACP wishes & care with BIPOC, then better methods of communication are in order to decrease the disparity.

Other states have brought multiple orgs together to accomplish ACP. C&P is fortunate to have a Past Board President, Rev. Dr. Mike Johnston, who has helped build a coalition in South Carolina ($2.3 million project). C&P is collaborating with others to increase health literacy, health education & build a state registry. This is another example of how public & private funding can benefit marginalized people. Upfront we are utilizing gifts to develop the concept. Goal: Sustainable program. Initial education for partners will require philanthropic support; increase our development & create a revenue generating ACP Benefit service to assist the community at large & fund our program. We started with a part-time admin & facilitators to launch our efforts with Texas Cancer Specialists, Drs. Jerry Barker’s office, 6801 Oakmont Blvd #101, Fort Worth, TX 76132.  Telschow Johnson Law also assists with some volunteer facilitators.
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In 2024, we expect explosive growth for #ACPforALL! We are developing a coalition of Orgs that have similar areas of interest and overlapping audiences. We will be adding on full-time staff! C&P hope to bring NIH study sites to targeted At-Risk zip codes; plus, C&P is developing its own research & curriculum for diverse communities. 

Medicine is making strides from paper & archaic systems to shared decision making; but digitization of consent & ACP are the quantum leap necessary for best outcomes since this is a patient safety issue. ACP & E-tech will ensure ALL have their voices heard & their values honored. Your support could change everything!


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