Older Americans Month, celebrated each May, recognizes the contributions that older adults make to our community, while also offering a time to reflect on ways to support their well-being and independence. This year’s theme, set by the Administration for Community Living, is “Champion Your Health,” which focuses on promoting tools and practices of healthy aging. Some of the most important tools a person can use to maintain a healthy and autonomous lifestyle while aging are advanced directives.
Drafting advanced directives ahead of time allows people to express, in writing, their personal, financial, and medical wishes and needs. It also allows them to designate specific people in their life who they trust to ensure those wishes are followed. One such directive, the Health Care Proxy, authorizes a person (the “principal”) to select a trusted individual (the “agent”) to make medical decisions for them, once the principal can no longer make their own medical decisions. A Durable Power of Attorney allows a principal to select someone who can take specific financial actions on their behalf. These documents can, and should, be tailored to the needs of the principal, and can be written in a way that gives the agent broad or limited authority.
Another advanced directive — the Living Will — is not legally binding in Massachusetts. However, it can be one of the most important documents because it helps the principal to thoughtfully consider what is truly important to them when facing serious illness or end-of-life decisions. A Living Will can be included with a Health Care Proxy as a guide to the kinds of treatment and care the principal wants to receive, and under what circumstances. A Living Will can also be a great place to start when talking with loved ones about late-in-life wishes.
Having advanced directives in place can also prevent the need for guardianship or conservatorship. A guardian or conservator is a person who has been approved by a court to make personal and financial decisions in the best interests of a person who is deemed unable to make decisions themselves. Unlike with a Durable Power of Attorney or Health Care Proxy, in a guardianship or conservatorship a court decides who will be the decisionmaker for the principal. Guardianships and conservatorships are notoriously difficult to reverse; having advanced directives in place makes sure that the principal, and not a court, is picking the people who can help the principal maintain their independence and dignity.
Advanced directives are not just planning documents. They are tools for expressing personal values and priorities, ensuring aging with dignity and independence, and equipping trusted individuals with information needed to make the right medical and financial decisions in times of crisis. Most importantly, advanced directives keep a person at the center of decisions about their life, even when they cannot speak for themselves.
As an attorney specializing in elder law at Community Legal Aid, the free civil legal aid provider for central and western Massachusetts, and in honor of Older Americans Month, I hope that you will take the time to have these conversations with loved ones and complete these documents, so that you can strengthen your autonomy and receive the care and support you desire.
Abigail Walters is a staff attorney in elder law at Community Legal Aid, which provides free legal assistance to income-eligible residents of central and western Massachusetts who are interested in setting up durable powers of attorney, health care proxies, and wills, or who may need other legal help. For more information about Community Legal Aid or to apply for legal services, call (855) 252-5342 or visit Community Legal Aid Get Help.