What to do when you think it’s time to refuse further treatment
If you are the Guardian of the Person or the designated Health Care Representative for a person who is extremely mentally incapacitated, there may come a time that you may face that most dreadful of decisions. You may wonder whether to treat all new medical crises. The person you are responsible for may have advanced Alzheimers or other dementia, may be incapable of expressing themselves, or...
Palliative care in a nursing home setting
A person who moves into a nursing home is referred to as a “resident” for a reason — this is their new home. At the end of life, the health care representative (or the patient himself) may be wondering whether there is a way to ensure that he can “die at home” in his bed instead of in a hospital. Paving the way for a quiet end will require teamwork and...
Even in a nursing home, palliative care can be used to ease the way at the end of life
When a person moves out of their home and moves into a nursing home for their long-term care, they become a resident at the facility, because the long-term care facility (LTCF) is their new home. The resident will receive mail there, can submit an absentee voting ballot from there, receive personal visitors and telephone calls there. This is why federal law and state law are couched in terms...