Managing Health A Health Care Advance Directive documents a person’s wishes in case one becomes unable to make his or her own health care decisions. Formal Advance Directives include the Health Care Power of Attorney and the Living Will. Every state recognizes some form of advance directives by statute. However, there is sometimes confusion over terminology and distinctions made between types of Advance Directives. A Living Will (or “medical directive” or “declaration” in some states) is a written instruction for the health care provider spelling out any treatments the individual wants or doesn’t want in the event the individual is unable to express their needs and terminally ill or permanently unconscious. A Health Care Power of Attorney (or health care “proxy,” or “medical power of attorney” depending on the state) is a document that legally appoints someone of your choice to be your authorized “agent” (or “attorneyinfact” or “proxy”). You can give your agent as much or as little authority to make health care decisions as you wish. And (in most states) if you wish, you can include the same kind of instructions that you would put in a Living Will. Thus, a Health Care Power of Attorney can do everything a Living Will can do, plus more. Capacity to appoint a health care agent is not precisely defined in law. Generally, such capacity requires an ability to understand what it means to have another individual make health care decisions for oneself and determining who would be an appropriate individual to make those decisions (ABA, 2017). Although all service providers can be trained to be more aware of certain red flags that relate to an individual’s capacity
Managing Health A Health Care Advance Directive documents a person’s wishes in case one becomes unable to make his or her own health care decisions. Formal Advance Directives include the Health Care Power of Attorney and the Living Will. Every state recognizes some form of advance directives by statute. However, there is sometimes confusion over terminology and distinctions made between types of Advance Directives. A Living Will (or “medical directive” or “declaration” in some states) is a written instruction for the health care provider spelling out any treatments the individual wants or doesn’t want in the event the individual is unable to express their needs and terminally ill or permanently unconscious. A Health Care Power of Attorney (or health care “proxy,” or “medical power of attorney” depending on the state) is a document that legally appoints someone of your choice to be your authorized “agent” (or “attorneyinfact” or “proxy”). You can give your agent as much or as little authority to make health care decisions as you wish. And (in most states) if you wish, you can include the same kind of instructions that you would put in a Living Will. Thus, a Health Care Power of Attorney can do everything a Living Will can do, plus more. Capacity to appoint a health care agent is not precisely defined in law. Generally, such capacity requires an ability to understand what it means to have another individual make health care decisions for oneself and determining who would be an appropriate individual to make those decisions (ABA, 2017). Although all service providers can be trained to be more aware of certain red flags that relate to an individual’s capacity
PLWDlivingAlonenosupportfinal508.docx