Make Your Healthcare Decisions a Priority in the New Year

Submitted by Hospice of Marion County

At the beginning of each year, many people make New Year’s resolutions, some include making healthier decisions about their diet, while others are about exercising or improving family relationships and more. Some are kept and some not so much. There’s one resolution that’s easy to keep – deciding to have a talk with your loved ones about your healthcare decisions and wishes at end of life.

Making your healthcare decisions and relationships a priority is wise any time of the year. It’s never too early to have those conversations with your loved ones – better to have the discussion sooner than later when it may be too late.

However, many find procrastination is all too easy, especially when it comes to talking about something unpleasant as the end of life. It’s one of those topics most people would rather not discuss, but there’s no guarantee on how long we’ll live. Just as preparing a will is optimal when we are of sound mind and body, so is preparing for future healthcare needs. Having to make decisions for others is complicated, especially when that person – someone beloved – can no longer speak for themselves.

Advance directives are legal documents that include a living will or a durable power of attorney for healthcare, also known as a healthcare proxy. Either document allows you to give directions about your future medical care. It’s your right to accept or refuse medical care. Advance directives can protect this right if you ever become mentally or physically unable to choose or communicate your wishes due to an injury or illness. By law, the decision belongs to the patient, so make your wishes known to your family, providers and caregivers.

An advance directive can be as simple as a two-page Living Will or as lengthy as the Five Wishes, a detailed-yet-user-friendly booklet. In Florida, an advance directive requires neither an attorney nor a notary—just the writer’s signature and that of two witnesses. Despite the simplicity of these documents, only about a third of all Americans have completed one.

Advance Directives can:
• Protect your rights to make medical choices that can affect your life
• Let families avoid the responsibility and stress of making difficult decisions
• Assist physicians by providing guidelines for your care
• Protect people who may be unable to communicate
• Limit life-prolonging measures when there’s little or no chance of recovery

• Enable patients to make their wishes known about:
– Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
– Intravenous (IV) therapy
– Feeding tubes
– Ventilators (respirators)
– Dialysis

Regardless of age or health status, we owe it to those we love to discuss our wishes and follow through with a written advance directive, which is revocable at any time. Free advance directives are available on www.hospiceofmarion.com website all year long, or contact our Monarch Center for Hope & Healing for assistance filling out your forms. Visit our website to learn more or call (352) 873-7456 if you need assistance.