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What Are Advance Directives?

Hospice Care in Orangeburg SC: An advance directive can help both you and your family member to feel more comfortable about the health care choices she's making.

An advance directive is a bit of paperwork that your senior may have been reluctant to attempt up to now. If she has some serious health issues, though, it’s better to try to get an advance directive in place sooner rather than later. Each state has different requirements, so it is a good idea to research what might be necessary in your location.

Hospice Care in Orangeburg SC: What are Advance Directives?

They Let Your Senior Put Some Decisions on Paper.

When your elderly family member puts her decisions for her future care in writing that gives everyone a perspective on what she wants. This can also help your senior to get some clarity on what it is that she wants. For instance, she may not have been open to the idea of hospice elder care but during the process of researching her options, she can gain a better understanding of what they can do for her.

Reduce Misunderstandings.

As much as this clarifies things for your aging adult, it also helps to reduce misunderstandings for you, for other family members, and even for the other people who help with her care. When everything is spelled out in black and white, there are fewer chances to get things wrong.

Your Senior Can Change Them.

Lots of people worry that advance directives are permanent. But that’s not the case. Advance directives enable your senior to change details as often as she wants to do so. All she needs to do is have a new copy forwarded to her medical team so that they can keep up with her current wishes. Some states do require this paperwork to be witnessed or signed by a notary, so it’s important to get those details in place.

They Can Get You and Your Senior Talking.

This is a fantastic tool if you and your senior have found it difficult to talk about what she wants from her future care. Going through the process of sorting through her wishes gives her the framework to put into place exactly what she wants her care to look and to feel like. You can both learn some amazing things from those conversations with each other.

Advance directives can solve a lot of problems for you and your aging family member, especially if you haven’t been sure yet what she wanted. Just because it’s on paper once, though, remember that she can still make changes whenever she wants to do so. That’s all a part of helping her to feel in control.

If you or your aging loved one could benefit from Hospice Care in Orangeburg, SC, contact the caring staff at Grove Park Hospice, (803) 536-6644

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