The end of a person’s life is a scary time, something that they often don’t want to think about, yet alone plan for. As a result, conversations are often simply not held. This is even true for seniors and for people with terminal conditions. Often, the topic is simply too scary and too difficult, so it gets avoided altogether.
From a caregiver’s perspective, that isn’t a good outcome.
End of life planning is a critical process, one that is essential for ensuring that people die well and that those who remain are not left with a considerable burden.
For example, without this planning, the death of a loved one can mean substantial financial struggles for the family – who are also grieving the loss at the same time. In some cases, such a situation could even put the family members in debt.
This type of planning is also relevant while the person is alive. For example, some medical situations may mean that family members have to make decisions for the person who is sick. Doing so is hard at the best of times. It can feel overwhelming and almost impossible if the family member doesn’t know what the senior actually wanted.
And yet, despite how significant end of life planning is, many people simply don’t do it.
Kaiser Health News reported on a recent study, which shows that only around a third of all adults in the United States have some form of advance directive in place. Older adults were more likely to have an advance directive in place. But, even then, less than 50% of the studied seniors had an advance directive.
There are certainly limitations with this type of directive and they can be scary. For example, people’s perspectives do change over time. Likewise, there can be fear that making the wrong decision will decrease the amount of care that a senior receives.
Nevertheless, those issues shouldn’t be a reason to avoid conversations about the end of life – far from it.
Instead, the conversations need to be had and it’s important to talk about what the person you are caring for wants and what the best way to achieve that is.
One such approach is having a health care proxy or a medical power of attorney. Basically, the person is someone who has the right to make medical decisions on your behalf, if you can’t. The site Everplans offers details on everything you need to know about choosing a health care proxy and why the process is so important.
The idea is to have a proxy who has your best interests at heart and who knows your wants and needs.
In the context of seniors and caregiving – many seniors may have their caregiver as their health care proxy. Others may have a family member, depending on the situation.
Having this in place truly is critical. Otherwise, you may find that your options are more limited if your family member needs healthcare treatment.
Additionally, a health care proxy can seem like a less scary decision than setting up a living will or an advance care directive. This makes it a good first step in many situations, although further planning is still important.
The truth is, regardless of who you are or what your situation is – end of life planning is a critical consideration. This isn’t just the case for the person you’re caring for either. Instead, it applies to you just as much.
After all, many people die long before we expect them to, whether by accident, disease or some other means. In fact, most of us know one or more people who died before their time.
What’s more, conversations about end of life do start to become easier over time. This means that the first conversations you have with family members may be difficult but some of that challenge will decrease. In fact, simply talking about the topic can open doors to other areas and concerns that you hadn’t previously considered.
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