No one likes to think about it — much less plan for it.
But from time to time, people are hit with medical problems so debilitating, they can’t even speak for themselves.
A series of workshops about “advance directives” sponsored by two UNMC groups, the Medical Ethics Committee and the Ethics Consultation Service, are designed to help university and Nebraska Medical Center employees prepare for such instances.
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The two basic types of advance directives are Living Will and Power of Attorney for Health Care, said Becky Anderson, an assistant professor in the department of Preventative and Societal Medicine and chair of the Ethics Consultation Service.
A Living Will deals more with end-of-life issues, such as whether a person wants artificial life support administered or continued under certain circumstances, Anderson said.
With a Power of Attorney for Health Care, a person appoints someone else to speak for them should they be unable to speak for themselves.
“The person you name should know what your health care wishes are and be able to work effectively with medical personnel,” Anderson said. “Everyone should have a power of attorney for health care.”
At the workshops, people will learn how to set up advance directives, what to consider including in the directives, how to select a substitute decision-maker and what to do with the documents once they’re completed.
Without advance directives, loved ones can be making extremely difficult health decisions for a patient without completely knowing what the patient would prefer, Anderson said. Or they may know the patient’s wishes but not be able to persuade others that the patient would want a particular outcome.
The first workshop will be held Wednesday at 2 p.m. in Kiewit Tower, room 910.
Five more one-hour sessions and two half-hour follow-up sessions are scheduled over the next few months but Anderson said more workshops will be held if there is a demand.
“We’ll keep having them as a long as people keep coming,” Anderson said.