90: We need to talk a lot more about not dying with Dr. Daren Heyland

There is a BIG difference between End Of Life Planning and Serious Illness Planning.

If you think estate planning is getting your wills and powers of attorney or healthcare directives set up for taking care of things when you die or are about to die, you might be making a big mistake.

If you end up in an ER, the doctors aren't going to look at any end of life planning you might have in place if they think they can still save your life. This requires a whole different way of thinking about planning for serious medical illnesses.

On the show today I speak with critical care physician, Dr. Daren Heyland, who is going to give us a look behind the scenes at what really happens when people and their loved ones are making decisions about their medical care when they are seriously ill, or terminal. We’ve talked a bit about estate planning on the podcast before, and my guest recently attended a financial planning seminar where the positioning of how and when certain parts of an estate plan come into place could have used some fine tuning.  He’s also going to discuss an initiative he’s been spearheading, called the Plan Well Guide, Plan Well Guide is a FREE tool to help people learn about medical treatments and prepare them for decision-making during a serious illness, like COVID-19 pneumonia for example.

Find out more here:

Company: https://planwellguide.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/darenheyland

Facebook: @planwellguide

Twitter: @plan_well_guide

Instagram: @plan_well_guide

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daren-heyland-2b674a185/

Guest Bio:

Dr. Daren Heyland is a critical care doctor at Kingston General Hospital and a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Queen’s University. He currently serves as the Director of the Clinical Evaluation Research Unit (CERU) at the Kingston General Hospital.  For over a decade he chaired the Canadian Researchers at the End of Life Network (CARENET), which has a focus on developing and evaluating strategies to improve communication and decision-making at the end of life