When a loved one moves into a senior living community, families often become more involved in coordinating care and planning for the future.
One important document families should be aware of is an advance healthcare directive.
The National Institute on Aging explains that advance directives communicate a person’s wishes about future healthcare decisions if they become unable to communicate or make those decisions themselves. NIA also recommends sharing advance directive information with appropriate family members, healthcare providers, and the person designated to make healthcare decisions. Read the National Institute on Aging’s guidance on advance care planning
For families, that raises a simple but important question:
Do you know where your loved one’s advance healthcare directive is stored?
Knowing That a Directive Exists Isn’t Always Enough
A family may know that a parent, spouse, or loved one completed an advance healthcare directive.
But knowing that the document exists and knowing where to find it are two different things.
Consider an unexpected medical emergency.
Your loved one is unable to communicate. A hospital needs important healthcare information. The family knows there is an advance directive, but the only copy is somewhere at home.
Someone now has to find it.
That may be relatively easy—or it may not.
The situation becomes even more complicated if the family member who normally keeps the document is traveling or unavailable.
The Importance of Sharing Advance Directive Information
The National Institute on Aging recommends making advance directive information available to the appropriate people involved in a person’s care. Read the NIA guidance for caregivers and families
That can include family members, healthcare providers, and the person designated to make healthcare decisions.
The goal is to make sure the individual’s wishes are known if they cannot communicate them personally.
But families should also consider how those documents will actually be accessed.
Where Is Your Loved One’s Directive Stored?
Many families store important documents at home.
Some keep them in a safe. Others keep them in a filing cabinet or with an attorney or other professional.
Those methods may provide secure physical storage, but they can also create a practical challenge: the person who needs the document may not be the person who has it.
Legal Directives provides another option.
Legal Directives securely stores advance healthcare directives and provides an Emergency Wallet Card that helps identify where the individual’s directive is stored.
This gives the individual a designated place for their advance healthcare directive rather than relying solely on a paper copy kept somewhere at home.
Legal Directives: A Place to Store Your Advance Healthcare Directive
Legal Directives is focused specifically on the storage and accessibility of advance healthcare directives.
Once an individual has an advance healthcare directive, they can store it with Legal Directives through the Medical Access Program.
The program is designed around a simple idea:
Your advance healthcare directive should be available when it is needed.
The Emergency Wallet Card provides a convenient way to carry information identifying the individual’s Legal Directives record.
That can be particularly useful when someone is away from home or experiencing an emergency.
Keep the Stored Directive Current
Advance healthcare directives can change over time.
The NIA recommends reviewing advance directives periodically and after major life events. Read the NIA’s guidance on advance directives
If a person creates a new advance healthcare directive, the updated document should replace the previous version wherever it is stored.
For Legal Directives members, that means making sure the current advance healthcare directive is the document stored in their account.
Keep Your Information Current
Advance healthcare directives may need to be reviewed when circumstances change.
The NIA recommends reviewing advance directives periodically and after major life changes. Read the National Institute on Aging’s guidance on advance directives
If a directive is updated, it is also important to make sure the current version is the one being stored and referenced.
For someone using Legal Directives, that means keeping the stored directive up to date when a new version is created.
A Simple Question for Every Family
If you are the family member of someone living in a senior living community, ask yourself:
If my loved one had a medical emergency tonight, would I know exactly where their advance healthcare directive is?
If the answer is no, it may be worth discussing where the document is stored and who should know how to access it.
Legal Directives provides a secure place to store advance healthcare directives and an Emergency Wallet Card designed to help identify where the information is available.
Because an advance healthcare directive can only help communicate someone’s wishes if the document can be located when it is needed.
Source
National Institute on Aging, “Advance Care Planning and Health Care Decisions: Tips for Caregivers and Families.” Read the full NIA article