Financial, Legal, and Health Care Decisions
Overview
There are a wide variety of guides and tools available for planning ahead regarding legal, financial or health care issues, including end of life planning. Some tools, such as advance directives for medical decision making, are intended to be put in place before someone has lost the ability to make decisions. Here are a few tips along with links to resources and tools that can help you make sense of sometimes complicated issues.
Items to Consider
- Encourage your loved one to discuss their wishes for dealing with financial assets before they loose their ability to make decisions.
- Become aware of the range of alternatives for making financial, legal and health care decisions on behalf of your loved one.
- Encourage your loved one to complete advance directives—complete yours as well.
- Talk with your family and physicians about your loved one’s health care wishes.
- Store advance directives in an easy to access location—tell family where they are located.
Online Guides and Tools
Consumers
Toolkit for Health Care Advance Planning, developed
by the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging provides
a comprehensive set of tools to help you make appropriate decisions
and communicate with others regarding an individual’s health
care preferences
http://www.abanet.org/aging/toolkit/
Health
and Financial Decisions: Legal Tools for Preserving Your Autonomy,
developed by the American Bar Association Commission on Law and
Aging, is a basic guide to understanding alternative tools for
making financial and health care decisions when an individual
is incapacitated.
http://www.abanet.org/aging/HealthFinancial2004.pdf
Substitute
Decisions by and for Older Adults and Their Families,
Virginia Cooperative Extenstion, 1999.
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/gerontology/350-253/350-253.pdf
The
Illinois Guardianship and Advocacy Commission, Illinois Office of State
Guardian also provides a copies of Illinois advance directions,
the “Do Not Resuscitate” Form, and information regarding
legal guardianship
http://gac.state.il.us/pdfs/DNRForm.pdf
Five
Wishes, developed by Aging With Dignity, is an easy
to understand tool for documenting an individual’s wishes
regarding medical decisions which can also be used to have frank
discussions with others regarding medical, personal, emotional
and spiritual needs. Using Five Wishes forms meets the legal requirements
of Illinois for the living will and durable power of attorney
for health care
http://www.agingwithdignity.org/5wishes.pdf
Illinois—Advance
Directive: Planning for Important Health Care Decisions.
Available online from Caring Connections, a program of the National
Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. A guide to the issues
related to medical decisions and how to prepare and use advance
directives in Illinois.
http://www.caringinfo.org/files/public/Illinois.pdf
The Illinois Department of Public Health provides a copy of the “Do Not Rescucitate” form: http://www.idph.state.il.us/public/books/dnrform04b.pdf, as well as guidance for individuals who wish to use the form to inform their physician http://www.idph.state.il.us/public/books/guide_individual.htm.
Other Resources
Visit the Financial, Legal, and Health Care Decisions section on the Resources page for additional information.
Contact the geriatric care specialist with your questions and comments regarding the Financial, Legal, and Health Care Decisions Module by emailing CAREgivinghelp@cje.net or by calling 773.381.6008.
It is important to remember the geriatric care specialist may not be able to respond immediately to your message. It may take two to three days before receiving a response.
Many questions submitted to the geriatric care specialist via email or voicemail message will be posted and responded to through the CAREgivinghelp message board. If you do not want your question and its response posted on the message board, please make your wish clear in your email or voicemail message to the geriatric care specialist.
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