Abstract

National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) will celebrate its fifth year on April 16, 2012. Designed to raise awareness about the importance of advance directives and advance care planning, NHDD has grown into a successful, growing national movement reaching several million Americans as of 2011. NHDD maintains an organizational structure that includes representation at the state, local and organizational level. The goal of NHDD is to motivate the public, individual providers, and institutions to take action to improve understanding of advance directives and participation in the advance care planning process. NHDD has developed extensive resources, including social media activities, and an annual evaluation process. Through its highly collaborative structure, it serves as a model for national outreach on a difficult topic.