Each time you visit your physician, you make decisions regarding your personal health care. You tell your doctor about your medical problems. Your physician makes a diagnosis and informs you about available medical treatment. You then decide what treatment to accept. That process works until you are unable to decide what treatments to accept or become unable to communicate your decisions. Diseases common to aging such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease may take away your ability to decide and communicate your health care wishes. Even young people can have strokes or accidents that may keep them from making their own health care decisions. Advance directives are a way to manage your future health care when you cannot speak for yourself.
Resources
Download a brochure to read more about Advance directives provided by Indiana's government website.
Download Indiana forms provided by Caring Connections, a program of the National Hospice and Palliative
Care Organization (NHPCO).