NH Options Vision, Mission, Purpose
It’s a matter of life.
Our mission is to ensure that all NH residents are aware of and can access the care, information, and support they need to make important decisions about their bodies, spirit, and emotional well-being when nearing end of life.
These decisions include accepting or declining medical treatment, use or removal of life prolonging interventions, appropriate pain and symptom management, palliative, and hospice care. Through this work, our vision is that New Hampshire is known as a place where people are inspired to live life fully and completely, and enjoy the best quality of life possible, right to the end.
Take Action.
· Be a resource for all NH residents on end of life choices, rights, and wishes.
· Inspire and facilitate honest, detailed conversations about death and dying among individuals and their loved ones so that people may feel empowered to live the best life they can until they die.
· Educate and inform NH residents regarding options for choosing their own approach to death, including through medical aid-in-dying.
· Work with partner organizations to support and expand the quality and range of care and support services available at end of life for all NH residents and their families.
· Monitor and advocate for legislation and other policy initiatives that advance our mission.
Dying in America.
Some of the most challenging questions we face as humans involve terminal illness and end of life. Among other concerns, we must sort through the complex and profoundly personal feelings and wishes around treatment and care. People in the throes of serious illness are too often treated as a collection of medical symptoms. Not only is this dehumanizing, it can take away our sense of control and effective participation in the decisions that affect us.
Some call medical treatment in America a “conveyor belt” where patients are put on a relentless path of interventions, often without their being truly aware of the potential outcomes or all of the alternatives.
Because the technology exists to keep on treating, “more” can be confused with “better.” A more humane approach would emphasize quality of life, as well as longevity, and be fully patient-centered rather than technology centered.
Your life, your choice.
Some people may choose to pursue the most aggressive treatments and life extending care possible. Others prefer palliative care and pain management, and seek the best quality of life for however long they have without more medical treatments.
Abundant research demonstrates that too many people don’t understand the available options and consequences. They live with great fear, anxiety, and confusion, and often inertia, when it comes to making end of life decisions. This can mean that decisions are made for them, in situations of tremendous stress or chaos, with family members unsure of or in disagreement about what is best and what the loved one’s wishes are. It does not have to be this way.