The Green Sleeve Initiative

 

Think of the Green Sleeve as your health care passport. It’s a place to store your medical information and advance care plan (ACP) documents in case of a medical emergency or a decline in your health. 

Bring your Green Sleeve to medical appointments or your trip to the hospital. Store it safely at home on or near the fridge, where paramedics know to find it during an emergency. Your Green Sleeve will speak for you if you are too ill or injured to speak for yourself. 

Developing your advance care plan is an important process for communicating your wishes for your care. Putting a plan in place will help ensure you get the care you want, and it will help your family at a difficult time.

Your Advance Care Plan in Six Easy Steps

Step 1

Pick up your Green Sleeve

You can pick-up a Green Sleeve at Sunshine Coast Hospice at 4602 Simpkins Rd. in Davis Bay, or at any medical clinic on the Sunshine Coast. Make sure to register your Green Sleeve on our website!

Step 2

Fill out the forms

Step 3

Decide who your decision maker will be

By BC provincial law, a temporary substitute decision maker will be chosen for you unless you complete a Rep 9 Representation Agreement which allows you to designate someone to speak for you. If the document is for someone with cognitive impairment or diminished capacity, then you would use a Rep 7 Representation Agreement. Tell your doctor who your decision maker is.

Step 4

Book an appointment with your doctor

If you have underlying health conditions, ask your doctor to have a “Goals of Care” conversation and to fill out a MOST (Medical Order for Scope of Treatment) form together with you. This will help you understand what to expect as your situation changes and what decisions you can make in advance, before your health declines.

Step 5

Dig deeper into your advance care plan

Hospice has workshops, resources, and ACP volunteer facilitators available to help guide you and your loved one through the process of preparing for your personal and health considerations of your ACP. The outcomes of your ACP conversations can be written down and also be placed in your Green Sleeve.

Advance Care Planning can also be far more detailed, and include legal, financial and estate conversations, your enduring power of attorney, funeral arrangements, and more.

Step 6

Store your Green Sleeve

Put your Green Sleeve in a safe place somewhere on or near the fridge, or choose a location that will be easily accessible to emergency first responders. Let your family know where it is, and mark the location with a green sticker.

Place the second green sticker on the outside of your front door to alert emergency responders that you have a Green Sleeve.

Review your Green Sleeve and keep the information up-to-date.

Upcoming Green Sleeve Events

 Partners

 Funders