Assisting Hands encourages everyone, but especially seniors, to create Advance Directives.  These documents explain how you want medical and financial decisions to be made if you are too ill or incapacitated to speak for yourself.  Having an Advance Directive in place shares your wishes with family, friends, and health care providers in order to avoid confusion.  They provide peace of mind for both you and your loved ones.

Here are the documents that comprise a complete Advance Directive.  Consult with an attorney and your primary care provider to set these up.

Health Care Directive

The MOST form (Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment) contains your wishes about what health care you will receive when you are nearing the end of life.  You use the MOST form to let health care providers know whether or not you want CPR, artificial nutrition, and other treatments.  This is a form you should discuss with your primary care provider, as they will need to sign it for it to be a legally binding document.  Check here (https://www.senioranswers.org/counseling/legal/advance-directives/medical/most) for more information and to download the form.

Durable Power of Attorney

This allows the named person to do anything you could do for yourself if you were competent.  DPOA’s can grant very broad powers, or can be limited.  Note that the Power of Attorney ceases when you pass away.

Medical Power of Attorney

This allows you to appoint someone to make medical decisions for you on your behalf.  This type of Power of Attorney also dissolves when you pass.

Living Will

This document explains what you want to happen in the event of brain death.  It is only for very specific circumstances, but is important to create as part of your overall Advance Directive.

Will or Trust

These documents explain your wishes when it comes to distributing your property and assets after death.  It is important to keep this document (and all the others) up to date – make sure you review them with your attorney, your PCP, and your family regularly.

I’ve mentioned family a few times in this post – make sure you have a discussion with them about all the components of your Advance Directive.  If they are not familiar with your wishes, confusion can still occur.  It might not be a comfortable conversation, but it is a vital one!