The Conversation Project

The Conversation Project Starter Kit (English)

Please feel free to download and print any of the below booklets. If you print more than 10, please send an email to tcp@dags.org with how many you are printing and how you plan to use them. This is for tracking purposes at the request of The Conversation Project.

If you’re ready to join us, we ask you: Have you had the conversation?

In addition to having the conversation, it’s important to choose a health care proxy – the person who will make decisions about your medical care if you become unable to make them for yourself. This new user-friendly guide offers facts and tips necessary to make sound decisions about choosing, and being, a health care proxy.

Hospice Agencies, Home Care Agencies, Social Workers, Discharge Planners, Hospital Groups, Doctor Practices, Healthcare Professionals, Senior Care Professionals, Senior Housing

Our DAGS volunteers can work with your needs. Our presentations can be stand alone or in conjunction with your current efforts and projects. We can help brainstorm ideas of what may work best for your particular goals.

For any questions about The Conversation Project presentations or becoming a DAGS speaker, please contact Laurie Miller at tcp@dags.org

After you’ve had the conversation with your loved ones, the next step is talking to your doctor or nurse about your wishes. Don’t wait for a medical crisis; talking with your doctor or nurse now makes it easier to make medical decisions when the time comes.

Too many people are dying in a way they wouldn’t choose, and too many of their loved ones are left feeling bereaved, guilty, and uncertain.

It’s time to transform our culture so we shift from not talking about dying to talking about it. It’s time to share the way we want to live at the end of our lives. And it’s time to communicate about the kind of care we want and don’t want for ourselves.

We believe that the place for this to begin is at the kitchen table—not in the intensive care unit—with the people we love, before it’s too late.

Together we can make these difficult conversations easier. We can make sure that our own wishes and those of our loved ones are expressed and respected.

what matters to you, not what‘s the matter with you.

How To Choose A Health Care Proxy/How To Be A Health Care Proxy

Talking with your loved ones openly and honestly, before a medical crisis happens, gives everyone a shared understanding about what matters most to you at the end of life. You can use this Starter Kit whether you are getting ready to tell someone else what you want, or you want to help someone else get ready to share their wishes.

CLICK HERE TO PRINT TALK TO YOUR DR

Our DAGS volunteers can work with you and your clients in whatever way will be most helpful for you.

Seminars for clients: our presentations can be formal or informal, 20 to 90 minutes in length, and tailored to your needs. The presentation may be focused solely on having “the conversation” with family members or be part of a larger panel with other relevant topics.The Starter Kit will be highlighted, as it provides the framework for values identification and is the starting point for a family conversation.
Professional training: 60 minute presentation geared toward training the professional on not only how to appropriately assist their client on discussing their end of life values but also on how to have them express their wishes to others. The Starter Kit and Proxy Kit will be highlighted.

Panel or Team presentation: The Conversation Project is a perfect addition to other related presentations such as: legal advance directives, wills and estate planning, pre-need funeral arrangements and more.

Emphasizes having a conversation on values —

DAGS wants to help people HAVE the conversation and also teach people to help others have the conversation. We want to make Dallas “Conversation Ready!” We think these conversations should happen early and often. It is better to have these conversations around the kitchen table and not in the ICU.
DAGS offers free presentations for large or small groups, associations, businesses and more. Most of our presentations offer Social Work CEUs. Here are just a few suggestions:

Senior Centers, Libraries, PTAs, HOAs, Alumni groups, Book Clubs, Professional Associations, Faith Based Communities

Financial Planners, Attorneys, Estate Planners, CPAs, Insurance Professionals, Real Estate Agents, Bankers