Advance Directives

You have the right and responsibility to take an active part in decisions about your medical care, including decisions to accept or refuse medical treatment. You also have the right to prepare what is known as an "advance directive" about your future care.

Both the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care and a Living Will are types of advance directives.

• A Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care is a document in which you name another person, such as a family member or close friend, as your representative to make decisions about your care, custody, and medical treatment. Your representative will only make health care decisions for you if you become unable to do so.
  
• A Living Will is a document in which you give instructions, in advance, regarding the types of medical treatment you do or do not want to receive if you become unable to make your own decisions. A Living Will declaration instructs your doctor to provide, withhold or withdraw life-sustaining procedures if you develop a terminal condition or become permanently unconscious.
  

Five Wishes

www.agingwithdignity.org

Five Wishes is the first living will that talks about your personal, emotional, and spiritual needs as well as your medical wishes. Five Wishes becomes a document which leads an individual in identifying how he/she wishes to be cared for in the event of a terminal illness or if the person is unable to make health care decisions.

Hospice of Siouxland encourages you to utilize Five Wishes as a document to assist you in completing your advance directives. An important step in finalizing advance directives is to communicate wishes with your family and assure a copy of your advance directive is on file at your physician's office.

Billfold-sized Copies of Advance Directives

Hospice of Siouxland in conjunction with other health care providers in the Siouxland area have launched a community promotion to encourage individuals to complete advance directives.

Advance directives must be readily available in the event of an emergency situation. Yet, advance directives are often home in the safe and unavailable to health care providers in an emergency situation. Your advance directive may be copied, reduced to the size of a driver's license and laminated for individuals to carry in their billfold. For more information about advance directives, please contact us by calling 712-233-4144 or 800-383-4545.