Advance care directives help ensure that the elderly parent you care for has a voice in the kind of medical treatment that they receive if they become incapacitated and are unable to make decisions or let their wishes be known.
It's a good idea for caregivers to ask their person they are caring for to draft an advance care directive. You might want to do so for yourself as well. Elders value their ability and freedom to make choices, especially about the kind of medical treatment they receive.
But what if your elderly parent become incapacitated and is unable to make decisions or let their wishes be known?
Advance care directives can help ensure that your mom or dad's voice is heard in these circumstances. They allow your parent to specify their wishes for health care and life-sustaining measures and to name a person who will make health care decisions for them in the event that they can't do it for themselves.
The types of situations that a health care directive covers are:
- The use of equipment such as or ventilators (breathing machines) dialysis (kidney) machines.
- "Do not resuscitate" (DNR) orders (instructions not to use CPR if breathing or heartbeat stops); in some cases, this also includes life-sustaining devices such as breathing machines.
- Whether you would want fluid (usually by IV) or nutrition (tube feeding into your stomach) if you couldn't eat or drink for yourself.
- Whether you want treatment for pain, even if you aren't able to make other decisions (this may be called comfort care or palliative care).
- Whether you want to donate organs or other body tissues.