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Using a Living Will to Direct Healthcare
As we have seen before, writing a will to give someone else the power to make decisions is nothing new. You can do this when it comes to healthcare as well. You can write a living will, otherwise known as a healthcare proxy, to appoint someone to make decisions related to healthcare when you are no longer capable of doing it.
Engaging an elder law professional allows you to make plans in advance about unexpected occurrences. At your advanced age, you are more vulnerable to ailments. In addition, accidents never announce themselves. It is best to prepare yourself and know, in advance, everything you can do and take the necessary steps.
What Can the Holder of a Living Will Do?
So, you may have decided to give more thought to a healthcare proxy. First things first, you need to know the limitations of this. What can your chosen representative make decisions about?
First of all, your living will can state whether you even want to receive treatment during certain circumstances. There are many reasons why you would want to go with this, and it is always an option. However, for those appointing a representative, they can make decisions about the following things:
- Surgery and related diagnosis
- Medicine
- Availability to past medical records
- Appointment and discharge of doctors, medical aid providers, and other personnel
Admittance and discharge from hospitals and nursing homes
What Can the Law Office of Joseph Marino, PC Do to Help?
Living wills are very complex documents and need an attorney to make proper sense of them and draft them. You might have religious, cultural, or even personal beliefs that need to be taken into consideration before a treatment plan can be agreed upon.
We at the Law Office of Joseph Marino, PC, employ attorneys whose main specialization is elder law. The healthcare part of elder law goes hand in hand with estate planning and other services, so only specialists should be allowed to handle your affairs. This is what we have to offer.
And with that, we wrap up our trilogy of posts related to elder law. We hope that you learned everything you needed to know about the topic - what works, what you can do, and how and where you can get help from. It is a necessity in today’s world, so we would urge all our readers to seriously consider looking into these services at the earliest.