The New Social Worker Vol. 20, No. 1, Winter 2013 | Page 33

Tech Topics
Sites Ease Stress of End-of-Life Planning
by Linda May Grobman, MSW, ACSW, LSW

I

t’s not an event that anyone “likes”
to plan for. However, in our roles as
social workers, we know that it can
be extremely beneficial to make one’s
wishes known toward the end of life.
Doing some advance planning is a useful
activity (for ourselves or our clients),
especially when it comes to living wills,
durable power of attorney for healthcare,
and funerals.

People use technology to get help
for planning a wedding, a bar mitzvah
celebration, or a birthday party. But
where can one turn to get online help
with end-of-life planning?

print, and e-mail his or her Five
Wishes document electronically.

Put It In Writing
http://www.putitinwriting.org/putitinwriting/index.jsp

This American Hospital Association-sponsored Web site provides
questions and answers about advance
directives, including a downloadable brochure, a wallet card, a glossary of terms,
and links to other helpful resources.

Full Circle of Care—Preparing an End
of Life Plan
http://www.fullcirclecare.org/endoflife/plan.
html

This very comprehensive site offers
links to a variety of practical tools, such
as a checklist to use after a person dies
(http://www.fullcirclecare.org/endoflife/ckl2.
html), a list of pertinent contacts (http://
www.fullcirclecare.org/endoflife/ckl1.html),
a medical information worksheet (http://
www.fullcirclecare.org/endoflife/wksheet.
html), and other checklists and forms.
Some of the information is specific to
residents of North Carolina, but most can
be used anywhere.

Five Wishes®
http://www.agingwithdignity.org/five-wishes.
php
and Five Wishes® Online
https://fivewishesonline.agingwithdignity.org/

Five Wishes® is a living will document that meets the legal requirements
for an advance directive in 42 states.
It can be attached to the state-required
paperwork in the other states. The five
wishes include:
1. The person I want to make health
care decisions for me when I am not
able to make my own health care
decisions.
2. The kind of medical treatment I
want or don’t want.
3. How comfortable I want to be.
4. How I want people to treat me.
5. What I want my loved ones to know.

The Five Wishes booklet can be
ordered online and takes the person
step-by-step through each of these wishes
with easy checkboxes, lists, and fill-inthe-blanks.

Through the online version of Five
Wishes, a person can complete, save,

AARP Caregiving Resource
Center
http://www.aarp.org/relationships/caregivingresource-center/endoflifecare.html

This section of the AARP Web site
provides informative articles, videos, and
other resources. For example, the article,
“Beginning the Conversation About
the End of Life,” asks some important
questions to ask a loved one. There are
also online chats and support groups for
caregivers.

Talk Early Talk Often
http://www.talk-early-talk-often.com/

This Web site provides guidance on
talking to aging parents about a variety
of issues, including advance directives
and end-of-life planning. Areas to plan
include their “stuff,” their property, their
finances, their pets, people currently
under their care (including special needs
adult children), passing down family stories, health care, remembrance after they
die, disposing of their remains, where to
keep the plan, and who to tell about the
plan.
eFuneral
http://www.efuneral.com

This site was started in 2011 to help
people research, plan, and arrange a
wide variety of funeral related services.

Co-founders Mike Belsito and Bryan
Chaikin launched the site after Mike’s
cousin died unexpectedly, and the family
didn’t know where to turn to make the
quick, but important, decisions that needed to be made.

Chelsea Gumuchio, LISW, is the
liaison social worker for eFuneral.
“As a former hospice social worker, I
understand how difficult it can be to
help undecided families make funeral arrangements,” she explains. “When I was
asked by my [hospice] patients and their
families for funeral home recommendations, I was only able to provide a list of
area funeral homes. And if I had time,
I might also make a few calls on their
behalf to obtain pricing information. But
most frequently, I was unable to provide
my patients and their families with much
useful information or guidance, unless
[they] qualified for indigent services.”

She continues, “It always struck
me that while my job was to offer care,
comfort, and support to these individuals
who were going through such a difficult
time, I could not help them with one of
the most significant and stressful decisions that they faced.”

Part of Chelsea’s role at eFuneral
is to let healthcare professionals know
about the services the site provides. One
hospice social worker told her, “Tell
whoever invented this that they are my
savior. I had an intern collecting all of
the funeral home information, as well as
the pricing, but now eFuneral will save
her hours.”

The site allows visitors to compare
local funeral homes, get pricing information, and get advice. Chelsea writes
articles for the site’s resource center on
death and dying, caregiving, end-of-life
care, and other related topics.
Linda May Grobman, MSW, ACSW, LSW,
is the publisher/editor of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER.

The New Social Worker

Winter 2013

31