Planning Ahead: A Three-Part Advance Care Planning Series

April is National Healthcare Decisions Month

Advance Care Planning can often be overwhelming. We are here to help you get started. Join us for this three-part, interactive series where you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions, complete documents, and get a plan in place to share your wishes.

Registration is for the entire series. We encourage you to attend all three sessions. However, if you cannot participate at the scheduled time, you will still receive the materials provided by the session facilitator.

SESSION ONE – April 11, 2023, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Lisa Vigil Schattinger will use Conversation Project tools to discuss what is important to you, considerations for selecting a healthcare proxy, and how to talk about your wishes with your healthcare team.

SESSION TWO – April 18, 2023, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Monica Gerrek will use her expertise to walk you through completing your Ohio Advance Care Directives and answer your questions in real time.

SESSION THREE – April 25, 2023, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Molly McMahon Graziano’s session will tie it together and provide information on implementing your advanced care directive plan.

WHERE: This series will be hosted via Zoom. You will receive the link in your confirmation email.

Session Facilitators:

Lisa Vigil Schattinger, MSN, RN

Lisa is the founder and executive director of Ohio End of Life Options, a nonprofit organization providing education, raising awareness, and advocating for a Medical Aid in Dying law. In 2014, Lisa was with her stepfather, Dr. Jack Rowe, when he died peacefully after utilizing Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act. As a state leader, she joined the board of Death with Dignity National Center in 2016 and has presented on the issue at state, regional, and national conferences. Lisa began her career as a women’s health nurse practitioner and then became involved in caregiving for her grandmother. This helped her understand the importance of Advance Care Plans and exploring and discussing end-of-life wishes.

Monica L. Gerrek, Ph.D.

Monica L. Gerrek, Ph.D., is the Co-Director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at The MetroHealth System, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioethics in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, and a bioethics consultant at Summa Health System. She is also currently chair of MetroHealth’s Ethics Committee and the American Burn Association’s Ethical Issues Committee and serves on Summa Health’s Ethics Committee. She has a Ph.D. in philosophy and completed the two-year Cleveland Fellowship in Advanced Bioethics offered by Cleveland Clinic, The MetroHealth System, University Hospitals, Cleveland VA, and Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Gerrek has published on topics such as ethics in burn care and correctional healthcare ethics. She has also given hundreds of presentations, locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally on these topics as well as on advance directives, do-not-resuscitate orders, and healthcare decision-making, among others. She has won several awards, including Case Western Reserve University’s J. Bruce Jackson, MD, Award in Undergraduate Student Mentoring and its School of Medicine’s Faculty STAR Award, and was a nominee for the American Burn Association’s 2023 Curtis P. Artz Distinguished Service Award.

Molly McMahon Graziano, MA

Molly is the Director of Outreach for Ohio End of Life Options. She has over twenty-five years of experience in nonprofit leadership and communications. After caregiving for both of her terminally ill parents, Molly began her work in the end-of-life space providing education and strategic support for northeast hospitals on organ and tissue donation. The deaths of her two solo aging sisters awakened her to the chaos left behind when loved ones don’t plan in advance. She has been working on the medical aid in dying issue for over seven years in Ohio. For the past two years, she also contracted with Death with Dignity National Center on social media and healthcare and advocacy programming.

This series was made possible by a grant from the S. Livingston Mather Charitable Trust.

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