Advanced Care Planning- The Gift of Love
National Healthcare Decision Day
April 16 is National Healthcare Decision Day is an initiative to encourage individuals to express their wishes regarding healthcare. Sharing your wishes relating to end-of-life, should not take place during a crisis. Additionally, the discussion is not reserved for those in retirement.
A medical crisis could leave you unable to make your own healthcare decisions. The discussion should take place early in life. Your views relating to end-of-life care and preferences are shaped by many factors including culture, religion, ethnicity, educational level, beliefs, family customs, income, environment and exposure to those who are chronically ill or dying.
The importance of younger adults considering their end-of-life wishes cannot be understated. Younger adults have a lot at stake. If stricken by serious disease or accident, medical technology may keep them “alive” for decades. Some of the most well-known “right to die” cases resulted from young individuals, incapacitated by tragic accident or illnesses and maintained on life support.
Advance Care Planning
Advance Care Planning (ACP) is a framework to help you think about the various plan components, discuss and decide what is right for you, document and share your wishes. Then periodically review your wishes to determine if any changes need to be made. You should determine who will be your Healthcare Champion (Surrogate), the individual who respects your wishes and will speak on your behalf if you are unable to do so. Empower this person by completing a Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare Decisions also known as a Healthcare Proxy document.
When you document your end-of-life wishes, it is vital that you share them with your surrogate and loved ones. Your surrogate should have the opportunity to seek clarification from you and not be surprised at a time of crisis by your wishes. This provides you the chance to validate that your wishes will be respected.
Advance Directive Considerations
When thinking about your Advance Directive there are several important questions to consider:
- What is important to you?
- What do you want to happen?
- What do you want not to happen?
- Who would speak for you?
Resources
There are wonderful free resources to assist you in opening the discussion with loved ones, and helping you to define your wishes. Many of these resources are also available in a number of foreign languages.
Updating and Ensuring Availability of your Advance Directive
Your Advance Directives can always be modified. It is a good practice to review your wishes every year or so, and when there is a major change in health status. Updated documents need to be shared with the Healthcare Champion (Surrogate), your physician (medical team), and uploaded to a registry if available in your state. Avoid placing such documents in a safe deposit box as they will not be accessible if the bank is closed. Consider uploading to your smartphone for back up.
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