National Healthcare Decisions Day
Friday, April 16, 2021, is National Healthcare Decisions Day to inspire, educate and empower the public and providers about the importance of advance care planning. NHDD is an initiative to encourage patients to express their wishes regarding healthcare and for providers and facilities to respect those wishes, whatever they may be. Churches, synagogues, and mosques around the country will support the effort by highlighting the importance of advance care planning with their congregations.
The Georgia Advance Directive for Health Care Act on the Georgia Living Will and Georgia Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care Laws encourage more citizens of Georgia to voluntarily execute and .appointment of a health care agent and sign an advance directive for health care.
What Is A Healthcare Directive?
What happens if you become seriously ill or injured, and can’t make your own medical decisions? Who do you want to make your health care decisions if you are no longer able to? What happens if you don’t choose someone to make your healthcare decisions if you become ill?
You need a legally binding document to explain who you want to make your healthcare decisions in the event you become ill or incapacitated; this document is called an advance healthcare directive. Every situation is unique, and you may give your healthcare proxy to an adult child, a domestic partner, a parent or a close friend.
Your health care directive authorizes someone you trust to instruct your medical team on how you want to be cared for, what treatments you do or don’t want, and what your end-of-life decisions are. If you become ill, you are not in the best frame of mind to make those decisions.
An advanced directive for healthcare says:
You can appoint an agent, a primary agent.
You can appoint a backup agent or a successor agent, or you can appoint two agents together.
The advanced directive for healthcare not only says who they can turn to, but it also appoints somewhat as guardian over you. So in the event you get out of the hospital and you're okay, but you still can't make decisions for yourself, then this is the person who can take care of you. I always say:
This is the person who can put you in the nursing home, so choose carefully.
Your agent does not have to be the same person as your guardian, but if you complete an advanced directive for healthcare you have the ability to make those decisions and to decide who is going to be the person who makes decisions for you. And sometimes if you're married that might not be your spouse, because your spouse might be too distraught to make those decisions. So instead you might appoint an adult child. Or if you're not married, it might not be an adult child because your adult child might be too distraught to make those decisions for you. So you might appoint a friend. And of course, if you're married and you and your spouse are involved in an accident together, that's where that backup agent is going to come into place. So if you make that decision today, or if you make that decision in advance, then in the event something happens you're already prepared.
The truth is none of us know when something is going to happen, so we need to make these decisions today. We need to sit down and have those important conversations. And if you're thinking about appointing a friend or someone as your power of attorney for healthcare, then you need to talk to them in advance as well to say this is what I'm thinking about doing, do you think you're going to be able to make these decisions for me? Because they may have to make decisions like an amputation. They may have to make decisions like a blood transfusion. They may have to make decisions about actually pulling you off life support. So that's why you will want to talk to that agent in advance of appointing them.
Don’t wait until it is too late: If you are hospitalized it may be physically impossible to enact a health care proxy or directive.
Your Trusted Legal Partner in Georgia
Do you need help to create a health care proxy and to designate your advance healthcare directive? As your trusted legal partner, our team at SmithTaire Legal is here to help you when you need it most. Schedule an appointment with us today to discuss your situation.