KEYConversations™
GRANT AWARDED!

The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust awarded Oregon Health Decisions a three-year grant for $128,000 with a portion of the funds being contingent upon a 1:1 match to implement an interactive training and educational program titled “KEYConversations™”.

 Oregon has well crafted laws that support the autonomy of its citizens in the face of desperate medical circumstances.  All too often, however, individuals do not take advantage of the opportunity our laws give them to make their wishes known in an advance directive.  Even more important than the documents, they do not have those Key Conversations with their family and friends that would help those around them support their autonomy-whether that involves choosing dramatic efforts to prolong life or seeking a more peaceful death. 
 
Our program seeks to replace the silence of those missing conversations by providing a tool that will help people know what to talk about.  The importance of our project will be seen in the quality of individual experiences when more Oregonians break their silence and tell their loved ones about their hopes and fears.  It will be understood by families who will have gone through the tragedy of a loved one’s death aware of how their loved one chose to face his or her dying.  Physicians, nurses, and chaplains will appreciate an increasing ability to align the care they provide with patients known wishes.  Hospitals will appreciate acquiring new ways to bring such meaningful benefit to so many people in their communities.
 

About the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust: 
The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust was created by the will of the late Melvin J. (Jack) Murdock, who was a co-founder of Tektronix, Inc. of Beaverton, Oregon, and a resident of Vancouver, Washington.  Since its establishment on June 30, 1975, the Trust has focused its grantmaking efforts in five states of the Pacific Northwest:  Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.
 
The Trust’s mission is to enrich the quality of life in the Pacific Northwest by providing grants to organizations that seek to strengthen the region’s educational and cultural base in creative and sustainable ways.