Elder Care
A growing number of people are faced with providing care for an aging parent or relative. This responsibility can be overwhelming especially when one doesn’t know where to begin looking for help. While employee benefits, policies, and resources are helpful, they are only one piece of the puzzle. A number of resources that will help make this responsibility less overwhelming and more enjoyable are posted below. The information within these pages was inspired by and adapted from Smith College’s Elder Care web site which you may visit by clicking here.
One of the first things that needs to be done, though, is speaking with a lawyer about certain documents that must be processed in order to help a loved one. These may include:
Durable Financial Power of Attorney
Appoints a trusted person to act and speak for another person, such as an elder. Depending on the terms, it may cover buying and selling real estate, management of personal property, stock and bond transactions, banking and insurance. A durable power of attorney remains in effect even after your elder becomes incapacitated. A non-durable power of attorney does not.
Durable Health Care Power of Attorney
The same idea as a financial power of attorney but allows the PoA to act on health-care matters including making decisions about medical treatments.
Living Will
Documents a person’s wishes regarding life-prolonging medical treatments, but does not permit another person to make decisions about life-prolonging medical treatments.
Health Care Proxy
Similar to a Health Care Power of Attorney and in some states is interchangeable with a PoA.