We each make personal health care decisions on a regular basis. Doctors ask whether you will accept a treatment by discussing the risks and benefits and working with you to make that decision. Everyone has the right to make these decisions; but what if you can no longer make your own decisions due to illness or injury? In these cases, an Advance Directive speaks for you to help make sure your personal beliefs are respected.

Give your family and medical team the gift of knowing what your healthcare decisions are if you cannot make them on your own.

Facts about an Advanced Directive:

• It’s free!  You don’t need a lawyer or a notary. You can even download the document for free from the Office of the Attorney General.
• An Advance Directive is only for medical, not financial, decisions while you are still alive. It is not a Power of Attorney.
• Be sure to review your Advanced Directive frequently to make sure your preferences haven’t changed.
• Keep the original in a safe place and give copies to your family, doctor, and hospital. Copies are as valid as an original!

If you’d like to pick up an Advance Directive packet or ask questions, HCGH will provide an information table on the following day:

Tuesday, April 26
11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. AND 2:30-4 p.m.
Howard County General Hospital
Pavilion Lobby
5755 Cedar Lane
Columbia, MD

Howard County General also provides monthly Advance Directive classes through the Wellness Center. Leslie Rogers, MSW, LCSW-C, OSW-C, clinical oncology social worker at HCGH and director of the Claudia Mayer Cancer Resource Center reviews what advance directives are, who needs them, and how to get them, as well as what it means to appoint, or to be appointed, a health care agent. Registration is required for this free event. The next session is scheduled for Thursday, May 12 from 6-7 p.m. Call 410-740-5858 or visit www.hcgh.org for more information.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the HCGH Cancer Prevention & Early Detection Clinic at the Mall in Columbia last Saturday.

Many members of the community benefited from free health screenings including more than 100 people who had their blood pressure tested and almost as many participated in a skin cancer analysis. Information on how to quit smoking was a huge hit as well as the healthy food samples from Uno’s Chicago Grille and Taco Bell as part of the Howard County Health Department’s Healthy Restaurants program.

Check out some photos from the event below and if you want to see more, click on the slideshow at the bottom.