Implementation of advance directives among community-dwelling veterans

To evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing a "Let Me Dec ide" advance directive education program among veterans living in the commu nity, the authors studied 150 veterans in south central Ontario. Thirty-fou r veterans had preexisting Powers of Attorney and were removed from the ana lysis, leaving a total sample of 116. Two methods of systematically impleme nting a directive program were evaluated after the intervention period and 6 months later. Eighty-two (71%) of the 116 veterans expressed interest in receiving detailed information about the program, and 67 (82%) of the 82 in terested Veterans were educated. Forty-two (63%) of the 67 educated veteran s completed directives. Of the 116 interested veterans, 42 (36%) completed directives. Veterans who were educated about directives were surveyed at fo llow-up, and 37 of 38 (97%) respondents reported that the education process was beneficial and should be offered to other veterans. This response patt ern was consistent among those who completed and those who did not complete directives.