Althea P. Halchuck

As a patient advocate, I am the person who helps your loved one prepare for the dying process and usher them peacefully, into their next world.  Since 2003, I have been a practicing mediator with extensive training and experience in adult family and end-of-life issues.  For 7 years I was an ombudsman, visiting hundreds of long-term care facilities, educating and advocating for seniors.   I am a "vigil" Doula and can help with end-of-life planning such as drafting Advance Care Directives, legacy projects, surrogate consulting, and finding estranged relatives. A long-time hospice volunteer, I have been honored to sit at the bedside of many dying patients and consider my experiences with the dying to be life-affirming and humbling. 
 
 

EJD (Executive Juris Doctor) Health Law: Concord Law School (Purdue Global) - 2012

 BA: University of Mass, Boston, MA.  1973

My maiden Aunt, Rita was my favorite aunt. She was single and fun and had a million friends.  She had polio as a young adult and although she had a deformed foot as a result, she lived her life to the fullest. Rita was independent and feisty and had a great sense of humor. She lived in an "independent living" apartment in Cambridge, MA, the city she lived in her whole life. She made her own decisions, and did so until the day she died. She started to decline in her late 80's. Although she could still live on her own, she had a host of ailments including diabetes  & macular degeneration  At this point, she gave me a POA for financial & health care, even though I lived in Arizona. Financial was easy, as I could do everything online. Health care was more of a challenge. She still had capacity to make her own decisions, but she often called upon my RN daughter and myself to sort things out and explain her choices. I had many "discussions" with her PCP over a litany of issues, from drug selections to a persistent itching rash that plagued her off & on. Most of my interactions with her providers were by phone and they usually would do as I asked. At 92, Rita developed colon cancer and immediately went on hospice.  I cared for her until she died. Rita had her affairs in order, including her paid-for funeral arrangements, recorded in her Advance Care Directive. I made one phone call to the mortuary and everything she had planned was put into place.  RIP Auntie, thank you for your love and I hope I make you proud. 

I give options and advice to people who are surrogates, have a power of attorney, and are proxies for a loved one. If you get pushback from a hospice over pain meds, or staff in the ICU over a DNR, I can help as a "surrogate consultant."  

For several years, I was a member of Kaiser  Bioethics Committee in CA. We made recommendations over the care of "unbefriended" patients who lacked capacity & were terminal. 

I am a practicing end-of-life Doula sitting vigil at the bedside of dying patients. 
 
Since 2003, I have been a mediator, specializing in civil and family issues at the end of life.  For 8 years, I mediated at the LA County Dept. of Consumer Affairs, helping elders negotiate medical bills and disputes with utility companies and neighbors.
 
Law Degree: In earning my Executive Juris Doctor in health law, I took the following relevant courses: Wills, Trusts, & Estates,  Health Law, Clinical Bioethics, Medical Malpractice, and did a Pediatric Hospice Internship.