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Consumer’s Tool Kit for
Health Care
Advance Planning
Second Edition
 
 
 
This publication was produced by the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Law andAging. The ABA Commission is dedicated to examining the law-related concerns of olderpersons. Established in 1978, the ABA Commission has sought to improve legal services forolder persons, particularly through involvement of the private bar, and has explored legal issuessurrounding long-term care, healthcare decision-making, individual rights, guardianship, housing,social security, elder abuse, and public benefits programs. The multidisciplinary commissionincludes lawyers, judges, physicians, professors, aging network leaders, and advocates for olderpersons.This publication originally was funded in part by the Last Acts Campaign, a call-to-actioninitiative to improve care at the end of life, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.This publication originally also was supported in part by a grant, number 90-AM-2152, from theAdministration on Aging, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C.20201. Grantees undertaking projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to expressfreely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarilyrepresent official Administration on Aging policy.
 
Tools 1, 2, 3, and 6 were adapted with permission from R. Pearlman, et. al.,
Your Life Your Choices—Planning for Future Medical Decisions: How to Prepare a Personalized Living Will
,Veterans Administration Medical Center, Seattle, Washington.Tool 4 was adapted with permission from
Caring Conversations
, a workbook published by theCenter for Practical Bioethics, 1021-1025 Jefferson Street, Kansas City, MO 64105.Tool 9 was adapted with permission from
 Making Health Care Decisions for Others: A Guide to Being a Health Care Proxy or Surrogate
, by the Division of Bioethics, Montefiore MedicalCenter, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York.
 
ABA Commission on Law and Aging740 15
th
St., N.W.Washington, DC 20005Tel. 202 662 8688Internetwww.abanet.org/aging © 2005 American Bar Association
 
 
Consumer’s Tool Kit for Health Care Advance Planning
I
NTRODUCTION
 
If you are looking at this tool kit, you are either thinking of making a health care advancedirective (such as a living will or durable power of attorney for health care), or you may havealready signed one. In either case, you should be aware that just having a written advancedirective by itself does not ensure that your wishes will be understood and respected. Studies haveshown that standard advance directive forms do little to influence end-of-life decisions without:1) informed, thoughtful reflection about your wishes and values, and 2) personal communicationbetween you and your likely decision-makers before a crisis occurs.
W
HY A
T
OOL
K
IT
?
Good advance planning for health care decisions is, in reality, a continuing conversation - aboutvalues, priorities, the meaning of one’s life, and quality of life. To help you in this process, thistool kit contains a variety of self-help worksheets, suggestions, and resources. There are 10 toolsin all, each clearly labeled and user-friendly. The tool kit does not create a formal advancedirective for you. Instead, it helps you do the much harder job of discovering, clarifying, andcommunicating what is important to you in the face of serious illness.
There Are 10 “Tools” in This Tool Kit:
Tool #1 How to Select Your Health Care Agent or ProxyTool #2 Are Some Conditions Worse than Death?T
OOL
#3 H
OW
D
O
Y
OU
W
EIGH
O
DDS OF
S
URVIVAL
?T
OOL
#4 P
ERSONAL
P
RIORITIES AND
S
PIRITUAL
V
ALUES
I
MPORTANT TO
Y
OUR
M
EDICAL
D
ECISIONS
 T
OOL
#5 A
FTER
D
EATH
D
ECISIONS TO
T
HINK
A
BOUT
N
OW
 T
OOL
#6 C
ONVERSATION
S
CRIPTS
: G
ETTING
P
AST THE
R
ESISTANCE
 T
OOL
#7 T
HE
P
ROXY
Q
UIZ FOR
F
AMILY
& P
HYSICIAN
 T
OOL
#8 W
HAT TO
D
O
A
FTER
S
IGNING
Y
OUR
H
EALTH
C
ARE
A
DVANCE
D
IRECTIVE
T
OOL
#9 G
UIDE FOR
H
EALTH
C
ARE
P
ROXIES
 T
OOL
#10 R
ESOURCES
: A
DVANCE
P
LANNING FOR
H
EALTH
C
ARE
 
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