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Addressing Medical, Legal, & Financial Advance Care Planning:
The Healthy Aging Checklist Part 6

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH

Power of attorney

This is the sixth and final post covering the Healthy Aging Checklist, a set of six core activities that will help any older adult maintain the best possible health while aging.

They are:

  • Promote brain health and emotional well-being.
  • Promote physical health.
  • Check for and address common aging health problems (such as falls, memory concerns, depression, incontinence, pain, isolation, polypharmacy).
  • Learn to optimize the management of any chronic conditions.
  • Get recommended preventive health services for older adults.
  • Address medical, legal, and financial advance care planning.

In this post, I’ll address the last item on the list: advance planning for medical, legal, and financial issues. This includes power of attorney documents, plus much more.

This is a big topic, and it’s not possible to cover everything you could or should do in a single article. You would need a book for that — I suggest three down below — plus it’s best to work with qualified professionals (healthcare providers, eldercare attorneys, and financial planners) before completing any legally binding paperwork.

But every day as I work, I see older adults and families whose health and well-being is being affected by the consequences of their planning — or lack of planning, as the case often is.

So in this post, I will share some practical information that should make it easier for you to address planning that covers some common age-related challenges:

  • The three key steps involved in all advance planning for aging
  • 5 common problems every older adult and family should consider planning for
  • What research has revealed about older adults and planning for the future (hint: that they are counting on their kids even though they usually don’t talk much to their families about this)
  • 5 key steps for advanced planning in healthcare
  • 4 key steps for advance planning for legal and financial issues
  • What to know about durable power of attorney for healthcare and durable power of attorney for finances
  • Tips for adult children, including what to do if you’re concerned about mental capacity or undue influence

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Aging health, Geriatrics For Caregivers Blog, Helping Older Parents Articles Tagged With: Advance Care Planning, dementia, healthy aging, power of attorney

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Based on a work at BetterHealthWhileAging.net.

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