Vim & Vigor - Summer 2013 - Parrish Medical Center - (Page 45)

LIVING WILL A living will outlines your wishes for medical care at the end of life if you are unable to make decisions for yourself. This document asks you to consider what types of life-extending care you might want, such as a ventilator to breathe for you or a feeding tube. Some people will want doctors to do everything they can; others will not. The decision is yours. “You can say, ‘I don’t want to live like this,’ ” Black says. HEALTHCARE POWER OF ATTORNEY Perhaps the more important document, Black says, is the healthcare power of attorney (or healthcare proxy), which allows you to appoint someone you trust to make medical decisions for you should you be unable to. While a living will provides important direction, gray areas arise, and a person empowered to make decisions on your behalf can weigh the options based on what you would have wanted. Choose someone who is willing to take on this important responsibility and—ideally—a person who doesn’t travel frequently and who lives nearby, Black says. Jennifer FitzPatrick, MSW, a licensed certiﬁed social worker-clinical who is an expert on caregiving and aging and a consultant for the Alzheimer’s Association, advises choosing someone who will advocate for your values rather than their own. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be the family member you’re closest with,” she notes, adding that your healthcare agent should be someone who can stand up to criticism from doctors and other family members. “Sometimes you’re under scrutiny when you’re holding up somebody else’s wishes,” adds FitzPatrick, author of the coming book Your 24/7 Older Parent. Once you’ve made your decision, be sure to share your choice with your family as well. “Have a conversation,” she adds. “And say, ‘I chose this person for my healthcare agent, and here’s why.’ ” This will help your family be supportive of your proxy’s actions if the time comes. GETTING STARTED No matter your age or health status, take the time now to think about what you want. Once you’ve completed your advance directives, have a conversation with your partner, parents, children and other loved ones— even if they don’t want to talk about it at ﬁrst. “We live in a very death-averse society,” Black says. “We need to be a lot more comfortable facing this inevitability in life. … And you need to have your say.” DOwnlOAD “The biggest problem is not having [advance directives] in place,” she says. “What that does is it forces providers to ﬁgure out what you would have wanted. It causes stress between providers and your family members. And it causes stress among your family members.” To ensure you and your family are prepared, start with a living will and healthcare power of attorney. Download an App to Track Your Mood Now you can keep track of your mood, log your sleep hours and keep a health journal with Parrish Medical Center’s HealthBridge app, available for Apple and Android devices. Track these, and more, with the app’s Health Trackers reports option. Go to bit.ly/vigor-app. Fighting Depression in Seniors As we get older, we are more inclined to give thought to advance directives and end-oflife care, particularly if we are facing health problems or have lost those close to us. These life changes and losses can also lead to depression. “One of the things that we oftentimes don’t recognize is the prevalence of depression in seniors,” says geriatrician Pamela Tronetti, DO, medical director of the Parrish Senior Consultation Center. “One reason we fail to recognize it is that a lot of the symptoms of depression in older adults are also features of getting older.” Although fatigue and waning energy levels are common among seniors, it’s important not to neglect signs of depression, such as changes in: • Sleep patterns • Eating behaviors • Physical activity • Social activity It might be natural to brush off a senior’s depression because it “makes sense,” given a recent loss, Dr. Tronetti says. “The fact that they’re depressed might be understandable, but we still need to treat it,” she says, noting that medications and therapy can help. SUMM ER 2013 45 http://www.bit.ly/vigor-app

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Summer 2013 - Parrish Medical Center

Vim & Vigor - Summer 2013 - Parrish Medical Center
Contents
Tasty Tips
Opening Thoughts
Community Calendar
What’s New?
Walk This Way
The Ultimate Back-to-School Checklist
Join the Movement
Stroke Stories
5 Steps to Better Bone Health
Gut Instinct
Morgan Freeman
Prostate Playbook
The Main Ingredient
Looking Ahead
Read Up
Pedal to the Mettle
Community Health
Foundation Focus
Ask the Expert

Vim & Vigor - Summer 2013 - Parrish Medical Center