You fill out a form when you are competent so that should the time come when you are not competent you have a set of instructions about how you would wish to be treated. Advance directives can deal with health care, where you want to live, organ donation, cremation - a whole variety of things.
You can also have a proxy directive called a power of attorney. You nominate somebody else.to make decisions on your behalf when the time comes.
You don`t have to fill them out.
There may be advantages for some people in filling out advance directives and powers of attorney but there are also disadvantages.
If you are assessed as being incompetent you are not allowed to change your mind, although still having mind enough to know what you want. Your power of attorney can stick you in a care home against your will and run away with your finances. Your house can be taken over by the local authority to pay for you being in the care home where you do not want to be. So there are lots of advantages for other people, but none for you.
Professor Molloy paints a rosy picture but it is only half of the story.
Then it is often the case that doctors and other professionals will make decisions on your behalf without informing your relatives and these days they tend not to want to prolong your life. See the post below.
The approach to replace the Liverpool Care Pathway was set out in the LACDP report, One Chance To Get It Right. The alliance accepted recommendations for a named GP to take overall responsibility for the care of patients nearing the end of their lives in the community.
Dr Maureen Baker, chairwoman of the RCGP, one of the LACDP bodies, said: 'Today’s announcement should provide much-needed clarity for doctors and, most importantly, much-needed reassurance for patients and their families and carers.
'By setting out clear principles of what is expected, it should increase the confidence of doctors, nurses and other health professionals in confronting sensitive issues around end-of-life care, as well as reducing the potential for confusion or misinterpretation.'
OK. What do they mean by `setting out clear principles of what is expected?`
For instance, why don`t they say who is supposed to be expecting what, and why? Using language in this vague way gives the strong impression that they are reluctant to come out clearly with what they mean.
Then we might wonder who has the potential for confusion or misinterpretation? Is it the health professionals who lack confidence in confronting sensitive issues around end-of-life care, or the patients? It`s vital to know. Why don`t they say?
What are the sensitive issues around end-of-life care? Are they talking about the withholding of food and liquids? Get that wrong and you kill people. Isn`t that what all the scandals have been about and calling that a care plan an outrageous distortion of the truth?
Are we really expected to be reassured by another round of the same old gobbledygook that attempts to disguise the euthanising of our old folk?
I don`t think so.
http://www.gponline.com/liverpool-care-pathway-successor-clarifies-gp-role-says-rcgp/palliative-end-of-life-care/article/1300789
