If you ask someone about advance directives, you will find most people understand they are an important document(s) regarding health treatment and a person's care wishes should they become incapacitated and unable to speak for themselves..
But there is a lot of confusion about how directives are used, when they are used and who can speak on your behalf. We hope to dispell some of the myths with facts to better clarify why they are so crucial in an emergency or a health crisis.
Myths vs Facts*
Myth: You must have an advance health care directive to stop treatment near the end of life.
Fact: Treatment can be stopped without an advance directive if everyone involved agrees. However, without some kind of advance directive, decisions may be more difficult and disputes more likely.
Myth: An advance directive means “Do not treat.”
Fact: An advance directive can express both the treatment that you do want–and that which you don't want. Even if you do NOT want treatment you should always be kept reasonably pain free and comfortable.
Myth: If I name a health care proxy, I give up the right to make my own decisions.
Fact: Naming a health care proxy or agent does not take away any of your authority. You always have the right, while you are still competent, to override the decision of your proxy or revoke the directive.
Myth: I should wait until I am sure about what I want before signing an advance directive.
Fact: Most of us have some ambivalence about what we would want because treatment near the end of life can be complicated. Advance health care directives can always be changed if or when your wishes or circumstances change.
Myth: Advance directives are only for old people.
Fact: Younger adults actually have more at stake, because, if stricken by serious disease or accident, medical technology may keep them alive, but possibly comatose or insentient for decades. Every person aged 18 or over should prepare a directive.
Myth: If you have a Living Will, you won’t get the best medical care possible.
Fact: Some people think that by stating their specific medical wishes, it will be interpreted as they don’t want care. This is not true. A Living Will is a document that states what you want in the event you can’t make decisions for yourself and your condition is either terminal or irreversible. It’s not meant to direct your care when you can participate and make decisions.
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