A visual vigil plan is a one-page visual summary intended to focus on the days and the hours before and right after death. This visual summary can help communicate your wishes so that the people caring for you can know how to best support you when this time arrives. 

 

It can be challenging to reflect on your death and even more challenging to have this conversation with loved ones. Yet making this plan ahead of deteriorating health or an unexpected health care crisis can alleviate so much stress for everybody involved. An end of life scribe will ask you questions designed to help you make your priorities clear. At the end of the process, your loved ones will have the opportunity to literally see, in images and words, what matters most to you.

 

Sharing your vigil plan with family and friends can help invite questions and deepen conversation. It can be posted in your living space at your end of life so health care workers and visitors can know how to interact with you and provide support. Visual vigil plans are meant to be inviting and very personal to the individual. Where would you like to be? Who would you like with you? Any sounds or music? Smells, flowers, pets, reading materials, journals…etc.? There are many things to consider. It's a gift to both you and your family and friends to communicate these sacred wishes.

​