Power of Attorney, Medical Directive – What does it all mean?

Categories: Active Senior Living, Aging Advocacy, Caring For Elderly, Resources

Advocate on Aging Deborah Dolan’s job is to facilitate conversations about care giving between families and loved ones – not control it. She is simply included in order to start and direct discussions, especially when it comes to difficult topics such as legal issues, death and dying. Certain topics are typically more difficult to discuss without a neutral facilitator, such as assigning powers to designated individuals. Deborah stresses to her clients that every caregiver should know the differences between a general power of attorney, and a healthcare power of attorney. Here’s what you need to know when it comes to these powers:

A fiduciary or general power of attorney is in place to handle financial assets including property, money, life insurance, and investments. Whether a person needs to have property sold to pay for their care, have bank accounts changed in any way, the assigned general power of attorney has the same ability to handle all financial transactions that the owner of the asset has. It is important to remember that this power ends with the death of the person granting the power, and the executor of the estate takes over. Deborah sees some clients, who are afraid to designate a power of attorney because they fear losing control over their assets, or that someone will take their money and they won’t have it when they need it. Deborah facilitates these discussions in order to help the elder and their families address these issues before the powers or information is needed and not in crisis. Although Deborah is not an attorney, she is able to refer her clients to attorneys and recommends that an attorney assist in writing this document.

A healthcare power of attorney is usually included in a healthcare directive and designates an individual who, in Deborah’s words, “gives voice to the wishes of how a person wants to live and how he or she wants to die.” This healthcare power of attorney agrees that if the person giving the power becomes ill or incapacitated and is unable to speak, they will honor and direct that person’s care as written to the best of his or her ability. Unlike the financial power of attorney, a healthcare power of attorney and directive does not have to have an attorney involved. There are resources available online which are legally binding and honored when the signature of the person assigning the power is notarized or witnessed by two non-interested parties. Two such forms are Five Wishes and Honoring Choices Minnesota.

There is much to do and many decisions to make when a health crisis occurs. Giving the gift of information needed to carry out personal wishes when you are no longer able to speak for yourself is a gift of love and peace.