In 2013, a study was released that looked at end of life decisions. There was a simple question on this survey, asking respondents which they agreed with. They were asked to select one of the following choices: “Doctors and nurses should do everything that they can to save a patient’s life,” or “It is okay to let patients die in some circumstances.”
31 percent of those that answered chose the first selection. 66 percent chose the second. In most circumstances, doctors are legally required to do all that they can to save a life, even if the patient is elderly. Unless the person in question has signed an advance directive to prohibit medical professionals from taking extreme measures to preserve their life, this is the course of action that is taken.
The interesting thing about this study was that it showed that most people do not believe that this is how it should be. It shows a large disconnect between the way that medical professionals work and the way that people think they should work. Regardless of what your personal beliefs on the matter are, it highlights something very important: if you want your senior care or the senior care of a loved one whom you are responsible for to go in a certain direction, you need to take precautions to ensure that it does.
Obviously, there are strong feelings about these topics. That’s why there are so many different opinions when it comes to senior care, and it’s why it remains a difficult topic for federal and state governments to resolve. The issues extend beyond end of life decisions, making the issue even more complex. These things can apply to the type of senior care, such as in-home care, assisted living, nursing homes, or hospice care. And they can apply to medications and medical procedures. There are a lot of different areas of senior care that can be considered controversial.
Whatever senior care decisions you and your family deem to be important, ensuring that they are taken care of before they become a necessity is the best way to guarantee that they become a reality. Making care decisions can be tough, and if you are like most, you have strong feelings about what you want and what you don’t want. Taking legal measures to protect your family is one of the few ways that you can get the best senior care possible. If this is something that you want to learn more about, it’s best to speak to an attorney that specializes in senior citizens and elder law. Power of attorney is often the go-to choice for seniors, but it isn’t the only way to proceed here.
Also remember that it might seem easy to make this decision at first, but when we start thinking about the people that we love being the patient in question, this decision becomes a lot tougher to make. This is just one aspect of senior care, but it does illustrate some of the complexities that each care decision that is made entails.
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