Death Series Part 1. Are you prepared to die…..legally? Medicare Nation 005

Welcome Medicare Nation!  I have to tell you that today’s show is packed with tons of great information.  The topic of today's show is making end of life decisions and having an advanced care plan for yourself.

Today’s guest is Dr. Stanley Terman (founder of Caring Advocates for Advanced Care Planning),a board certified Psychiatrist in Carlsbad, CA, and a published author on today’s topic.  Dr. Terman has spent the last 15 years focused on reducing the pain of terminally ill patients.

People’s greatest fear is losing control and it means that other people have to make decisions for you.  It becomes difficult for people to be in a situation where they have to make decisions about your life, based on your wishes, not on your finances.  This instills much fear within all of us as we are aging.

Advanced care planning has been painted as “death panels”in the media and has fostered the idea that decisions about your care will be made with bias.  If you learn what your choices are now, you can plan and then not have to worry about it later in life.  There is a freedom that comes when you have made these decisions for yourself, and it allows you to continue enjoying your life.  

The majority of people in certain groups do not prepare enough for advance care directives:

Religious people 
African Americans

Living Wills tend to be more controversial, we understand that some are reluctant to adopt them.  Doctor Terman created a Natural Dying Living Will, which is an extremely flexible document.

You are required to fill out a form of this nature in order to document your wishes.  You don’t need to consult an attorney and you don’t need to spend any money.  You can fill out a living will for free.  The Natural Dying Living Will isn’t free, but it gives you  many options and it is flexible.  The document needs to be strong enough to compel Physicians to follow your specific wishes.  The Natural Dying Living Will accomplishes  this with several layers of protections built in, and it has proven effective to get the attention of the physician.  Once you have filled out all of the paper work,  Dr. Terman recommends making a video where you summarize your wishes in a video directive.

**You need a Durable Power of Attorney in order to give someone the authority to make the Physicians follow your Living Will.

This will ensure you have the 4 P’s

1.  Peaceful

2.  Prompt

3.  Private

4.  Passing

Caring Advocates provides a laminated business card with a scannable bar code.  When scanned, it immediately pops up the video of your final wishes, and the necessary documents for your living will.  There’s concern about finding documents or getting documents out of safe keeping, in order to submit them to the Doctor

When attending a counseling appointment with a Doctor, bring your end of life documents with you to the session. Then your session becomes getting your Doctor’s opinion on the decisions you have made.  Some services like Palliative Sedation are choices you may make, but a Doctor might not support it.  Better to find this out ahead of time.  Having a discussion about this type of treatment and even Respite Sedation are beneficial.  You need to give your Doctor the tools to help sustain life, and these tools can accomplish that.

Once you have this paperwork taken care of, including the Durable Power of Attorney, there are clauses that would allow for the changing of Physicians and even for changing the treatment plan.  So this way of handling your paperwork is comprehensive and it can last through the ages, and the changes that can occur.  

Plan now, to die later, to live longer.

You don’t want to miss Doctor Terman’s offer to assess your existing Living Will for the 3 main scenarios that will likely cause your death.  It’s an unbeatable offer!  Listen to the show for all the details!

Resources Mentioned in the show:

www.caringadvocates.org

The Natural Dying Living Will

Doctor Terman’s Books:

A Lethal Choice - The Best Way To Say Goodbye
Peaceful Transitions - An Ironclad Strategy to Die When and How You Want
Peaceful Transitions - Plan Now, Die Later
My Way Cards - Natural Dying Living Will Cards

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