After reviewing this website and slides.

1. What is the history of this initiative?

Ellen served as a caregiver for her mother with Alzheimer’s who she never discussed end of life care
with, so the decision fell on Ellen. Ellen had the goal of making it easier to talk about living and dying,
so she formed the conversation project in 2010. In 2011, Ellen and IHI joined forces with support
from other experts. Their overall goal is for everyone to “have the conversation,” so that people aren’t
stuck in Ellen’s shoes having to make those decisions for someone.
2. What is their mission?
To help everyone talk about their wishes for care through the end of life, so those wishes can be
understood and respected. On the home page of the website, “Helping people share their wishes for
care through the end of life” is bold and center.
3. How do they accomplish their mission; what tools do they use?
On this website they provide guides on how to start a conversation, choose a healthcare proxy or be
one yourself, how to talk to your healthcare team about end-of-life care, how to talk to those with
Alzheimer’s and dementia, and how to talk with a child living with serious illness. They also have
videos and blog posts sharing testimonies and advice helping to encourage the conversation. Another
thing I noticed when exploring the website is that they over ways to get involved so that the
conversation project can reach where people work, pray, live, and learn. There are ways to get
connected with people in community organizations, faith-based organizations, or health care
organizations. These organizations help those wishing to have the conversation and help to spread
the word. In addition to all of these things, they have social media; Facebook, twitter, Instagram,
YouTube, and newsletters as well as in-person speaking engagements.
4. How do they personalized this site; updates, blogs, stories and opportunities?
As stated above, they do all the above! If you go to the “What’s new” tab you can find updates; there
is a whole section dedicated to the blog which discusses lessons, resources, listicles, and guest
stories. The videos tab shows testimonies, and the “Get involved” tab shows opportunities to join
different kinds of organizations. There is even a map showing where the organizations are located,
and its color coded by the type of organization it is. The ways that we can engage with them are
through following them on social media and joining their organizations or even downloading the
kits!
5. How could you or someone you love benefit from the Conversation Project Starter
Kits and / or Top Tools.
Death is often a hard topic to discuss because emotions often outweigh logic. Using these tool
kits and conversation project starter kits would really help ease into those conversations, give
insight into other people’s stories, and in the long term, help all of us have our wishes carried
out at the end of our lives. People don’t often think about these things, but the more hospital
experience I get the more I realize that anything can happen, and you should always have a
plan in place; things get so complicated, and guilt takes over when you’re left to make a choice
for someone who can no longer make that choice for themselves.