National Healthcare Decisions Day
Saturday, April 16, is National Healthcare Decisions Day. It isn’t as famous yet as Christmas, Easter or Mother’s Day, but it belongs on our calendars just the same. This is the 4th annual National Healthcare Decisions Day, which is a day when all adults are asked to create or review their advance medical directives and/or health care powers of attorney and to share their care wishes with family and friends.
A health care power of
attorney permits you to formally designate someone to make medical decisions
for you when you cannot make or communicate a sound medical decision
independently. An advance medical directive
records your wishes for care, and the limitations you might set, to guide your
physicians and surrogate decision-makers in determining your course of care when
you cannot speak for yourself. Sometimes
both these purposes (the designation of a surrogate decision-maker and the
statement of care wishes) are combined in a single document. All adults should prepare these documents in
case of future illness or injury; injuries and medical emergencies happen to
adults of all ages, not only as we grow older.
To learn more about legal planning for aging and illness, see the education section on our E-Senior Services web site at http://www.e-seniorservices.com/education/legal-planning-for-illness-and-aging.html. To find state-specific information and forms for advance directives, please see the National Healthcare Decisions Day website at http://www.nhdd.org/p/resources.html .
Take some time this
Saturday to think about who is best suited to make your medical decisions in an
emergency situation
and what guidelines you wish to provide to govern his or
her decisions for you. If you haven’t
created a health care power of attorney or advance medical directive, do so
now. If you need assistance with options
and legal execution of the document, contact a local elder law or estate
planning attorney for assistance. When
you have made your decisions and created your legal documents, share your
wishes with your physicians, close friends and family so everyone knows who is
in charge and what to do in case you are injured or taken seriously ill; don’t
keep your wishes a secret!
If you have already completed these planning documents, take a few minutes on Saturday to review them and arrange for any needed updates. Encourage family members and friends to create and/or review their own medical directives and powers of attorney. Be sure you understand the care wishes of your loved ones before you actually need to put them into place in an emergency situation.
