Care & Consequences, Binghamton, NY 1999
Partners:
Press & Sun-Bulletin
WSKG Public Broadcasting
The Pew Center supported a series of public forums, newspaper stories and radio and television broadcasts, which began in May 1998 and ran periodically through 1999, to educate the aging population in and around Binghamton, NY, on issues related to the end of life. The partners also launched a Web site, www.careproject.net, dedicated to helping people plan in advance – rather than at a time of crisis – for the ethical, financial, legal, spiritual and medical decisions associated with dying. The Web site received about 1,330 hits per month in 1999.
Several hundred people attended various community meetings held throughout the year on different aspects of dying. Through those meetings and other events, the partners distributed some 2,400 wallet-size “health care proxy cards” that could be filled in with emergency contact information and special instructions for end-of-life health care.
WSKG broadcasts included a radio town meeting to kick off the project, live radio and TV call-in shows and a town meeting simulcast on both radio and television to wrap up the series. The partners also received separate funding to purchase reference books and audio-visual materials on the issues, which remain in permanent collections at 52 public libraries in the Binghamton area.
Contact:
Juan Martinez
WSKG Public Broadcasting
601 Gates Rd.
Vestal, NY 13850
Phone: (607) 729-0100