
Lise Andreana recently released her latest book
Financial Care for Your Aging Parent,
published by Self-Counsel Press. Last month The Globe and Mail printed
an excerpt of the book. We wanted to share that with you here as well.
Lise Andreana
Contributed to The Globe and Mail
Excerpted with permission from: Financial Care for Your Aging Parent by Lise Andreana, Published by Self-Counsel Press.
The Five Wishes
Five
Wishes is a tool for developing an advance directive document,
including the living will, and was developed in the United States. It
talks about the person’s emotional needs, medical wishes, and spiritual
needs. Developed in part by the American Bar Association to help people
deal with the legal problems in end-of-life care, this model can also be
used informally in Canada as a starting point for discussion.
If you are working with your elderly parents, choose a quiet moment
to introduce a conversation about the five wishes concept. You may be
surprised by their answers. It is a good idea to document the answers.
American readers can formalize the five wishes as part of their legal
documents. Canadian readers may add a signed and dated letter outlining
their five wishes to their Power of Attorney and will documents.
Five
Wishes allows a person to spell out exactly how he or she wants to be
treated should he or she become seriously ill. Note that specific
funeral instructions, memorial services, and burial requests may be
included in this document. Give your parent time to think about the
following questions.