If/When you can afford to get a lawyer, get one. Caregivers often have to initiate conversations with loved ones concerning a loved one's personal assets, and their end of life decisions.
You'll be exposed to Wills and Trusts, Estate Management, Funeral and Burial Planning, and different kinds of Health Directives. These are all personal and financial wishes and situations that can/will occur over time. Best case scenario, you don’t ignore these issues until it is too late.
When a person dies, several things happen very quickly. No matter how prepared you are, you can never be prepared enough. You don’t want to have to make decisions while you and your other family members are in a highly emotional state. Do these things while you are clear-headed.
Your loved one’s estate is made up of debts and assets. You don’t want to tie up any possible assets in Probate. Probate is a legal process that eats up your time and your money. Depending on your economic situation Probate can go on for a very long period of time.
Depending on where you live, there is a general standard for time periods involved in each step of the Probate process. You may have three months to register with the Probate office but you don’t actually have to go into Probate. That takes a lawyer, a number of fees, and a book’s worth of legal forms. It also takes family agreement.
Then an Executor is appointed. Any creditor with a debt belonging to your loved one has to be contacted. Then they may have six months to respond. That is already 9 months after the death of your loved one that you have to pay to keep up the utilities, property taxes, and other bills, while you wait for Probate to end.
Probate is a nightmare. Do everything you can to avoid it. Some ideas are about putting specifics in Wills and Trusts. There is also a Pay on Death scenario that may be used, and something called Quit deeds.
Basically, take an inventory of all your loved one’s assets and make sure accounts and deeds have additional names on them, or everything is in trusts. This can keep assets out of probate.
There are also many healthcare related situations and issues that also have legal aspects.
You may have loved one's who have already taken care of issues prior to events that now require a caregiver. If that is the case, you may be required to know where everything is located so events can be put in motion when necessary.
Your loved one may need to appoint people to do various jobs There are several legal forms for that.
POA (Power of Attorney) deals with legal and financial aspects of a loved one's life.
A Healthcare Power of Attorney or a Living Will beneficiary has to have many conversations with their loved one to get a true sense of what their loved one wants to occur medically over the course of their illness or incapacitation. Then those decisions made by your loved one need to get put into legal documents.
The Healthcare POA relays those decisions to medical professionals usually in high level stress times like a full-blown hospital emergency.
There are special Health Instructions sometimes called Advanced Directives that may apply to your situation.
There are full DNR's. (DNR Means Do Not Resuscitate). If a patient has a DNR, Medical Professionals have specific health points when they stop attempting to keep a patient alive.
No one has to use a DNR. It is an option some people want as the quality of life can matter more than having more time; but being unable to do what they love.
Another issue that may be discussed is called Guardianship and/or Conservatorship. Guardianship and Conservatorship are legal arrangements designed to protect individuals who are unable to make decisions for themselves due to incapacity or disability.
Behavioral changes in your loved one can have legal implications that caregivers need to navigate effectively. This might trigger conversations about guardianship and decision-making, and who speaks for the loved one and acts on their behalf.
It is an issue that can happen when your loved one has cognitive issues or might just be an addict. Again, it will be up to the caregiver to make sure their loved one’s wishes and desires are honored and dignity is upheld.
Legal forms really do need to be in place while you are care-giving. Not only do you need to know all the wishes of your loved one, you will be the one who has to advocate for those wishes when dealing with the medical community. There may be times when your loved one won’t be able to speak for themselves.
Medical Professionals, legal professionals, and your family members must understand what those wishes are. The caregiver's job is to communicate with each of these groups and make it known what your loved one wants.
You may have situations where family members don’t always agree. It can fall to the caregiver to do what the loved one wishes, then deal with the fallout. Unfortunately these issues tend to cause a lot of rifts between family members. That is one of many of the costs of care giving.
In advocating for your loved one's wishes and rights you may come across the term" ethical decision-making!” You want your loved one to have high quality care done with dignity. Medical Professionals need to recognize the autonomy of every patient while balancing decisions based on the care and safety of their patients.
This situation can occur when a patient is making decisions that hurt them. A lot of times the illness involved is cognitive. Thought processes have changed for the patient and they aren’t making good decisions.
They may want to do or not do things that are in their best interest. A caregiver is going to have to decide between keeping a loved one safe and alive versus agreeing with the loved one's current desires while not in a state that is typical of themselves.
Some techniques a caregiver can fall back on include shared decision-making and informed consent. But don’t forget that there will always be ongoing communications with everyone involved.
If things get out of hand Ethical Committees are professionals who may be able to help. It can be impossibly nerve-racking trying to negotiate the intersections of care with dignity; the knowledge that a loved one has had behavioral changes that could lead to self harm, and the wishes of a loved one stated when they were in their healthier state of mind.
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