Ends of Life Issues with Elderly

Ends of Life Issues with Elderly

Literature Review

The aim of this literature review is to highlight various ends of life issues faced by elder, especially people facing death, or the death of a loved one. In the last few years, numerous journals and articles on the end of life issues have appeared. Most of the journals concluded on the fact that elders especially parents and their adult children avoid discussions on “End of life issues” until a crisis. Considering death as an ultimate reality it is for everyone's advantage to discuss these issues as early as possible.

As per the definition of American psychological association end of life is defined as “that time of period in which the health care providers will not be surprised if death occurs within about 6 months period.” Until recent decades, end of life issues were mostly the issue of classified decisions made by certain cultural as well as religious frameworks. But now they have become a topic of discussion for ethical debate and public policy. It is better to understand, evaluate and address these issues before we come across their mounting consequences.

Advance care directives, Palliative Care, Hospice Care, Legal, Ethical and Clinical Issues are some of those issues that need to be addressed in order to properly investigate and research about end of life issues.

Advance Health Care Directives

Also termed as living will or personal directive, Advance health care directives are written guidelines in which a person specify the course of action that should be taken if he or she becomes incapable of making decisions due to illness. The PSDA 1990 (Patient Self Determination Act) requires patients especially elders to thoroughly examine the advance health care directives before admission to any health care facility (Resnick & Andrews, 2002). Some patients usually appoint an agent to look after their advance care directives and make decisions on their behalf when they are incapacitated.

When it comes to advance directive, there are two common kinds: Living will and Durable power of attorney for health care (DPAHC) (Brown, 2003). A living will doesn't require medical or legal assistance. Living will is an oldest form of advance health care directive (Kurtner, 2011). Living will may help the person to look after their property and real estate affairs even when they are not able to do so. As this form of will is used even when the person is still alive it is known as the living will. A Living will may also include a set of directions for the course of treatment to be taken by health care providers.

Durable power of attorney for health care (DPAHC) is a kind of advance physical condition care directive, in which individuals appoint a surrogate who will make health related decisions for the patients who are seriously or terminally ill and are not able to make their health care decisions on their own (Brown, 2003).

Elders usually misunderstood advance care directives with their last will or treatment which indicates knowledge ...