Americans Lacking in Advance Directives for End of Life Planning

Credit: Gazette.net

Making end of life preparations will not only provide you with a death as dignified and uncomplicated as possible: it will also give your family peace of mind. A part of planning for our shared, inevitable fate of death means looking at all potential scenarios surrounding it. We hope we will be able to direct any medical decisions as we move closer to our death, but in many cases a dying person may become physically incapable of expressing their end of life wishes. If this is the case, there is one aspect of end of life planning that proves invaluable: an advance directive.

Credit: Wikipedia

An “advance directive” refers to a kind of living will in which you choose someone to take charge of your medical wishes if you are unable to do so towards the end of life. Advance directives are legally valid throughout the United States, yet according to a January 2013 study by The American Journal of Preventive Medecine, more citizens need to take the concept into serious consideration.

“An “advance directive” refers to a kind of living will in which you choose someone to take charge of your medical wishes if you are unable to do so towards the end of life.”

Organizations like Five Wishes help with Advance Directive Planning. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Of the 7,900 people who responded to the journal’s survey, which asked whether or not Americans have an advance directive, only 26.3 percent said yes. Aside from the socio-economic reasons behind these results (those “who were older in age with higher levels of education and income were associated with greater likelihood of completion of advance directives”), many who were surveyed said they simply did not know what an advance directive was.

So, spread the word on advance directives – and if you haven’t looked into the concept, we encourage you to consider how it could save you and your family unnecessary hardships regarding end of life decisions.

You may be interested in:

• Reading SevenPonds’s interview with Judy Epstein about advance directives.
• Learning more about this topic from Caring Connections
• Visit a site, like Five Wishes, that can help you with your advance care directive