It is a privilege to grow older each day, the alternative is not great!
A big thing about getting older though is making sure we can maintain choice and be able to make decisions for ourselves at any time. I have spoken with many older people over the years – it’s one of the amazing parts of my job – and when I ask them about their plans and where they would like to live into their final decades many respond with “I don’t want to think about that, I just want to live here and keep doing what I am doing.” I get it, it’s not something any of us want to think about, especially when life is good and we are enjoying ourselves and feel like nothing is going to change in a hurry.
However, sometimes life does change, and it creeps up on us or can change in the blink of an eye. In those times we are then really pleased if we have planned for the future. If you have family, planning for the future also helps them and makes life easier for them when a really tough scenario occurs. So, what can you do to help them out and be organised in your future planning?
Future planning helps the people who you love and those who love you to know what you would like if you require care and support in the future. It makes it clear what your preferences are, which can help relieve anxiety and stress on your family and friends. It can also help health care professionals and organisations feel more confident about the care they may need to provide you and reduce any unwanted treatment.
Every country will have a slightly different system. If you are reading this and don’t live in Australia, it is recommended you speak with the experts in this area within your country who know the processes you need to go through to be prepared and also to make sure your preferences are known, even if you can’t express them at the time.
In Australia, and specifically Western Australia, these are the documents recommended to have in place, so that your preferences and wishes are actioned:
Enduring Power of Attorney (is also known as a continuing power of attorney): This is a legal document that allows you to assign someone to make financial and property decisions on your behalf if you become unable to do this yourself in the future. The person you appoint (called the ‘attorney’) can manage your bank accounts, pay bills, and handle any other financial matters. The ‘enduring’ part means that the power to do this will still be valid even if you lose decision-making capacity. In some enduring power of attorney documents, you can nominate that they become valid right away, or only become valid if you are deemed to lose decision-making capacity. You may also be able to appoint more than one person in a joint capacity. Depending on where you live, it may have to be lodged with a relevant government department if it covers real estate or property.
An easy way to remember this document is, it is so that someone can assist you with your finances, but you are making the decisions. This is not something to take lightly and you need to really think this through before having this document developed and signed. The reason I say this is because elder abuse unfortunately occurs on a regular basis. According to Advocare , 1 in 6 older Australians are experiencing some form of abuse and financial elder abuse is one of the most prevalent. I will speak more about this in a blog next year.
For more information about making an enduring power for financial decisions please click here or here.
Enduring Power of Guardianship (also known as a healthcare proxy): This document allows you to appoint someone to make decisions on your behalf if you are not able to make them yourself due to a loss of decision-making capacity. This document grants the power to make personal and health decisions about issues such as medical treatment, living arrangements and other lifestyle choices. You can specify which decisions your guardian or proxy can make.
To learn more about Enduring Power of Guardianship please click here.
You might find you have a person in your life who is really good at finances and another that has very good health knowledge and you decide to have different people assigned to these two different documents. I have a friend who is very good at the financials and she helped her Mum with all of that in her last years of life and her sister was great at the health side of things so she helped her Mum receive the care and supports required to live well in her final years with dementia. This worked well for everyone in this particular scenario, but it’s important to do what is right for your individual circumstances. For you it may be having two people on each if they are willing to enact your wishes and requests and not their own values. It is really important with all of these documents that YOUR requests and decisions are upheld and choosing someone to do this is really important. Gone are the days of having the son or the eldest child named on these documents, it's important you choose the person or people you believe will represent your wishes and decisions.
Advance Healthcare Directive (also known as a living will, personal directive, advance directive etc.): This outlines your wishes for medical treatment if you are not able to communicate them yourself in the future. It can specify the kinds of medical treatments you do or do not want in certain situations, for example, include a Do No Resuscitate Order, which indicates that you do not want to receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation if your heart stops. It can include instructions about life-sustaining treatments, and pain management, and may include a section where you can outline your values and preferences.
Will: The final document is a will. Why is it important to have a will in place? Well, if you own anything and don’t have a will in place in Australia it means you die intestate. According to the State Trustees this means that State Intestacy Law will determine how your estate is managed and distributed, which may not necessarily be in accordance with your wishes. It may also take an extended period of time for your estate to be settled and the cost will be significantly more than if you had written a will AND had your own say in how you wished your estate to be dispersed. From what I have seen and read, the “more” someone has the more important it is to have a will in place and have YOUR wishes known, money does strange things to some humans and you just never know which ones, so it’s easier to have that all sorted and it stops arguments before they even begin.
It is best to get legal advice when making a will. There are a number of different places you can go for example a lawyer, Public Trustees, Legal Aid or Citizens Advice Bureau. You need to determine what is right for you, in your circumstances.
To develop and authorise these documents, you need to be an adult with decision-making capacity, which is the ability to understand and make informed choices. Please be aware that decision-making capacity can change over time and can be impacted by mental health conditions and cognitive capacity. We can lose our decision-making capacity at any age through accidents or illnesses or the neurological effects of ageing conditions. It is important to make your loved ones aware that you have these documents and also provide information about where they are stored. You should update your future planning documents regularly as your circumstances change while you still have the decision-making capacity to do so.
Please note though, these documents have different names in different places across the world, it’s important to contact your relevant government health or legal department for where you live to make sure you are receiving the correct information, this blog contains general information only.
If you have all of these documents already in place, good on you. Just set a date every year or two to go back and have a look at them and make sure you are still happy and your circumstances haven’t changed.
If you don’t have any of these in place, it’s a good idea to start to think about what you own and what your wishes are for your future financially, health wise and ageing in place.
Perhaps start with the one you are most comfortable thinking about and once you start you will realise it is not as difficult as you think and you will have them done in no time.
The best thing about having these in place is that your wishes have to be enacted, not the wishes of someone else, that’s great peace of mind.
Another thing you can consider too is all of your social media accounts, leave your passwords somewhere safe to make that easier for your loved ones too.
Now you have all of these in place, it’s time to go and live a long, happy and healthy life.
What's your legacy!
I would like to thank Dr Barbara Blundell for her help with the blog this month. Barbara is a Senior Lecturer, social worker and colleague of mine at the Curtin School of Allied Health. Her research focuses on ageing and disability issues, elder abuse, human rights and advocacy. She works closely with Government to help older people in Western Australia.
Live the good life!
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