Making medical decisions for your parent

by Julie Fleming

One of the biggest mistakes I made was not knowing exactly what kind of medical care my father would want. Worse yet, I thought I’d done it right. I’ll tell you more in the video, but here’s the spoiler: depending on what happens with your parent, an advance directive that tells you what to do if your parent is physically incapacitated may not give you the information you need.

The take-away:

1. Talk with an attorney to be sure you have the proper legal documents in place.
2. Talk with your parent’s doctor to be sure you understand his or her health conditions and their likely progression.
3. Talk with your parent (or reflect on what you know based on your parent’s comments over time) and find out what they do and don’t want when it comes to medical care. Specifically, how much treatment do they want, and will there come a time when they’d prefer not to be treated even if that decision likely means shortening their lifespan?