The Conversation Project is a public engagement initiative of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Its goal is to help everyone talk about their wishes for care through the end of life. The organization started in 2010, when Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Ellen Goodman and a group of colleagues and concerned media, clergy, and medical professionals gathered to share stories of “good deaths” and “hard deaths” within their own circle of loved ones.
The Conversation Project offers free tools, guidance, and resources to begin talking with those who matter most about your and their wishes. Since 2024 more than 700,000 people, from all 50 states and 160-plus countries, have downloaded its Conversation Starter Guide, which is available in English, Spanish, and Chinese. Audio versions as well as video support are available.
Speciality guides include For Caregivers of People with Alzheimer’s or Other Forms of Dementia and For Caregivers of a Child With Serious Illness. The Conversation Project has also created the Getting Started Guide for Communities. This offers an approach to begin planning for engaging community residents in health care conversations through the end of life and partnering with other organizations in your region to promote this work.
Materials created by The Conversation Project are downloadable and available to print for free.