New form to convey end-of-life wishes
A new tool is available for people who want more control over how their lives end.
The Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment, or POLST form, lays out patients’ wishes should they be unable to communicate with their family and physicians in their final days.
Unlike most living wills or advance directives, the POLST is an actual physician’s order because either a doctor, nurse practitioner or physician assistant signs it along with the patient.
“The POLST form is like body armor,” Sally Denton, administrator of St. Joseph’s Care Center in Spokane, said in a press release. “It will protect you from having things done you don’t want, and ensure that your wishes are respected.”
POLST is a bright green, single-page, two-sided form. Patients can check boxes to indicate their choices about the use of resuscitation, antibiotics, artificial fluids and feeding and other life-support measures.
The form was created by the Regional Ethics Network of Eastern Washington and the Washington State Medical Association. An earlier version of the form was used in a pilot program in Spokane and Whitman counties. The newly revised version is said to be simpler and is now available statewide.
Patients are encouraged to post their POLST forms on their refrigerators where emergency workers can find them, the ethics network said in the release.
To obtain the new form, contact your doctor. A video about it can be viewed at www.wsma.org/patients/polst_video.html.
Health care providers can find the form at www.wsma.org.
Agency changing name
The Health Improvement Partnership is no longer HIP.
The agency, which runs various programs to improve the community’s health, will change its name to Community-Minded Enterprises June 21. The new name better reflects its mission to enhance community well being in many arenas, not just in health care, HIP’s Executive Director Dan Baumgarten said in a release.
“People always think we’re just health development,” HIP spokeswoman Julie Gardner said. “We work in other areas, too.”
That includes child care, disability issues and workforce development. HIP’s popular health-related services include Health for All, which connects uninsured people with medical coverage, and Healthy Kids Now!, a public awareness campaign to bring health care to children.
Despite the name change, the agency can still be reached at www.hipspokane.org or by calling (509) 444-3088.
Cancer, dye link weak
Pull out the rubber gloves and throw a shabby old towel around your neck. It’s OK to take the gray away.
The Journal of the American Medical Association published an analysis of 79 studies from 11 countries last week that found no strong evidence that hair dyes increase one’s risk for cancer. This refutes a growing concern among the public, wrote Dr. Bahi Takkouche of the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and the other authors of the analysis.
“An association between hair dyes and cancer would be an important pubic health concern since about one-third of women in Europe and North America, along with 10 percent of men older than 40 years, use some type of hair dye,” they wrote.
Permanent dyes, the strongest type, represent 70 percent of the market share, according to the report.
The analysis found there’s no connection between hair dye and breast or bladder cancer. And while there’s a borderline effect for hematopoietic cancers, such as leukemia, the link is “too weak to represent a major public health concern,” the report said.
Dead birds wanted
The Spokane Regional Health District is encouraging a different type of bird watching.
The district asks residents to be on the lookout for dead birds, an annual plea that helps them track the presence of West Nile virus. They’re especially interested in collecting corvids, which include crows, ravens and magpies, because they’re particularly susceptible to the disease.
Mosquitoes transmit West Nile from birds to other birds, horses and humans. The potentially deadly disease attacks the central nervous system. Washington and Maine are the only states in the contiguous 48 that haven’t had a human case of West Nile yet, the district said.
People who find a dead bird with no obvious injuries should leave it where it was found, note the location, and then call the district at (509) 323-2847.
Hearts on display
It’s part art, part outreach and part heart.
The Washington State Heart Gallery photographic exhibit will debut at the downtown Spokane library June 2. The portrait and documentary photos show the faces of children and adults in need of adoption, employment, respite care or other support.
A similar exhibit on display at the River Park Square Kress Gallery since early May will be extended through the end of June.
Then the Heart Gallery will move to the Spokane Valley Mall July 1 for a month-long stay.
In the last year, the art has inspired 12 families to adopt children, 37 adults to become mentors and 24 families to provide foster care.
The exhibit is sponsored by the Department of Social and Health Services.
To view the photos online, visit www1.dshs.wa.gov/heartgallery/index.html.