Past experience and common wisdom tell us that more than half of the resolutions made each New Year have to do with diet, exercise, and health. As a society, it seems we are preoccupied with physical fitness and longevity. As long as health is on our minds, let’s look at it from a legal perspective. That is, let’s take a look at the Health Care Power of Attorney, also known as the Advanced Health Care Directive.
An Advanced Health Care Directive (AHCD) is a legal document that expresses your wishes for your health care in the event that you are unable to make decisions for yourself. This means it lets a hospital staff know if you want to be kept alive on life support or not, if you want to receive artificial nutrition or hydration, and if you want to be given pain relieving drugs. An AHCD also nominates a person to act as your agent and make decisions for if you are incapacitated—very important if you don’t want your health care to be the subject of national debate á la Terri Schiavo.
As long as you’re thinking about the AHCD, why not think about including the name of your primary care physician in the document. This way you can have the peace of mind of knowing that your agent will have the help and advice of someone who already knows your medical history, a doctor you trust and admire. Having your own doctor involved in an emergency situation can go a long way towards decisions being made swiftly and with confidence.
Last but not least, how about making a short list of people who should be contacted in case of emergency, along with their phone numbers. It only takes five or ten minutes to compile, and you will not only have it for legal purposes for your AHCD, but you can also copy it and put it in your wallet, or next to your phone at home… just in case.
There it is, easy and effective. Now that we’ve got that taken care of, let’s go to the gym.
