Memory Care Planning
Assess Activities of Daily Living
Allow us to begin the conversation with you with regards to cognitive decline. It is our honor to come in and sit or walk with you and plan what you would like for care to look like for yourself or your loved one during the years of advanced disease progression. We are committed to walking this journey with you.
Cognitive Assessment and Care Planning
Care planning for individuals living with dementia and/or other cognitive disorders is an ongoing process and a formal update to care plan should occur at least once per year or when indicated by disease progression.
- Ensuring patients receive the most benefit from treatment options at the earliest point possible
- More time to plan for the future
- Lessened anxieties about the unknown
- Increased chances of participating in clinical studies, helping advance research
- An opportunity to participate in decisions about care, transportation, living options, financial and legal matters
- Time to develop a relationship with doctors and care partners
- Access to care and support services, making it easier for them and their family to manage the changes that come with the disease (Alzheimer's Association)
Conditions such as functional impairment and dementia are common and frequently unrecognized or inadequately addressed in older adults. Identifying and limitations by performing a functional assessment can provide the foundation for developing interventions to be addressed in the life care plan.
Advance Care Planning
Paperwork for End of life
Advance care planning involves discussing and preparing for future decisions about your medical care if you become seriously ill or unable to communicate your wishes. Having meaningful conversations with your loved ones is the most important part of advance care planning. Many people also choose to put their preferences in writing by completing legal documents called advance directives
Autonomy can be expressed, and to some extent be exercised, by the elder through the use of Advance Directives created and signed by the elder under the provisions of the Texas Advance Directives Act of 1999 including a medical power of attorney, advance directive to physicians and family or surrogates and a do-not-resuscitate order. By doing so, the elder can express his intentions and have an assurance that decisions made in his autonomy while having capacity will be maintained and respected when he does not have capacity or when he cannot express his decisions.
http://www.ensignlaw.com/Ethical%20Issues%20and%20Elderly.html
Research shows that you are more likely to get the care you want if you have conversations about your future medical treatment and put a plan in place. It may also help your loved ones grieve more easily and feel less burden, guilt, and depression. During an emergency or at the end of life, you or your loved one may face questions about their medical treatment and not be able answer them. You may assume your loved ones know what you would want, but that’s not always true. In one study, people guessed nearly one out of three end-of-life decisions for their loved one incorrectly.
