This website provides access to helpful information and forms to help individuals and families in planning for their healthcare needs and wishes. 

Mission
National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) exists to inspire, educate and empower the public and providers about the importance of advance care planning. NHDD is an initiative to encourage patients to express their wishes regarding healthcare and for providers and facilities to respect those wishes, whatever they may be.

Overview
NHDD exists as a 50-state annual initiative to provide clear, concise, and consistent information on healthcare decision-making to both the public and providers/facilities through the widespread availability and dissemination of simple, free, and uniform tools (not just forms) to guide the process. NHDD entails 50 independent, but coordinated, state and local events (necessitated by the difference in state laws and dynamics) supported by a national media and public education campaign.

In all respects, NHDD is inclusive and brings a variety of players in the larger healthcare/legal/religious community together to work on a common project, to the benefit of patients, families, and providers. NHDD is not prescriptive; it allows for and fosters creativity.

A key goal of NHDD is to demystify healthcare decision-making and make the topic of advance care planning inescapable. On NHDD, no one in the U.S. should be able to open a paper, watch TV, view the internet, see a physician or lawyer, or go to a healthcare facility without being confronted with the topic of advance care planning. Among other things, NHDD helps people understand that advance healthcare decision-making includes much more than living wills; it is a process that should focus first on conversation and choosing an agent.

Vision
Across the country, every healthcare facility will participate as the flagship venues for the public engagement. Other participating organizations/facilities that have their own physical spaces will engage in activities as well. Those organizations that lack physical spaces will work in conjunction with others or at non-healthcare venues (libraries, grocery stores, drug stores, etc.) to support the initiative. A variety of churches, synagogues, and mosques around the country will also support the effort by highlighting the importance of advance care planning with their congregations.

The OSBA provides a great deal of general information about all aspects of the law for members of the public, including handbooks, pamphlets, newspaper columns, programs, and information about attorneys. This information is offered free of charge and can be downloaded off of the website.  The LawFacts pamphlet series provides general information for consumers about the most commonly encountered legal issues such as advanced directives, wills, bankruptcy, DNR orders, guardianships, living trusts, living wills, probate, etc.