Topic and Questions We Can Help You To Answer
Paper Instructions:

Part 1:Assessing My Personal Health Risks

Many chronic medical conditions including cardiovascular disease and cancer are related, at least in part, to unhealthy behaviors and lifestyles. For instance, research shows that diet and smoking being the two leading behavioral risks for cancer. For this week’s discussion I’d like you to visit a Washington University School of Medicine website (see link below) that contains several “quizzes” that allow individuals to assess their risk for various conditions.

Explore this website by completing at least 1 assessment and post to the discussion board your reactions to the results of your “quiz”. In addition, please answer the following questions or comment on additional aspects of this self-assessment experience that you found to be interesting: What are your thoughts on the website’s recommendations about improving your lifestyle? What are your thoughts on the feedback it provided? Do you feel that this would be a helpful tool for patients in need of behavioral interventions for the prevention and or management of disease? Why or why not?

Website link:

http://www.yourdiseaserisk.wustl.edu/

Part 2:Opinions about End of Life Decisions

Although the textbook does not discuss end-of-life decisions, several psychologists have examined the usefulness of advanced directives such as durable power of attorney and living wills. Peter Ditto and his colleagues have identified several challenges to the usefulness of advanced directives. Most Americans do not have an advanced directive that specifies what kind of end-of-life care they prefer, especially minorities, the poor, the young, and the healthy. Many people intend to draft an advance directive, but cite procrastination as a common excuse.

However, research shows that people’s preferences for various forms of end-of-life care are not particularly stable, and are even more unstable following a health threat. Thus, it is difficult for healthy people to accurately predict what kind of life-sustaining treatments they would prefer. Family members tend to overestimate a patient’s preference for life-sustaining care, so may not be the most accurate predictors of a person’s preferences for end-of-life care. Advanced directives can be helpful – especially when they can help strangers (such as hospital and emergency physicians) make more informed decisions about the preferences of patients.

Facing Death (2010; 53 minute video documentary) is part of the PBS Frontline series, highlighting some of the complicated end-of-life decisions faced by doctors, patients and their families at New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center. After viewing the  4 minute video excerpt of this documentary (see link below) and reviewing the resources below, pose to the discussion board your personal opinion regarding the difficult question: How far would you go to sustain the life of someone you love, or your own?

You are welcome to cite additional resources or current publications (scholarly or media-related) to support your opinion. You may also watch the full documentary available at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/facing-death/ (Links to an external site.)

Please be mindful of the sensitive nature of this topic and be respectful of your classmates when posting your own original responses as well as your replies to their opinions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4objV7cLYg (Links to an external site.)


Resources:

These websites explain the various forms of advanced directives in good detail:

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Support/advance-directives (Links to an external site.)
http://www.cancer.org/treatment/findingandpayingfortreatment/understandingfinancialandlegalmatters/advancedirectives/index