Indiana Estate Planning & Elder Law

Friends Of The Firm Friday - RHEA Services

 

 

 

 

 

All too often, families who have lost a loved one find themselves overwhelmed by the myriad responsibilities that come along with finalizing someone’s affairs. There are payments to be made or stopped, appointments to cancel, accounts to close, services to discontinue, people to notify, and paperwork to file. It can be difficult, if not impossible, to focus on handling these many details while still having the room to grieve the loss of a loved one.

This is the reason Sarah Kendrick founded RHEA Services; to be able to step into this gap and bring assistance to people in the bereavement process. Her team at RHEA Services are able to work alongside people who manage some of these many tasks, so that families can focus their minds and hearts on what matters most during this difficult time.

While doing the work of helping families finalize their loved one’s estates, it became clear how often people are unprepared and how difficult it can be to find the appropriate information after a loss. Understanding how overwhelming and challenging it can be to gather all the most important information, Sarah created the RHEA Services Pre-Planning Guidebook and developed a system of guided pre-planning sessions to walk families through filling it out. Working together, they record, consolidate, and secure one’s essential information, including the areas of: financial, insurance, medical, dependents, pets, social media, and more.

Sarah and RHEA Services are glad to be able to provide support and care for life’s transitions. You can find more information at www.RHEAServices.com or speak to someone today by calling 317-732-5181.

Facebook: RHEA Services

Instagram: @rheaservices

Phone: 317-732-5181

E-mail: [email protected]

Friends Of The Firm Friday - CAREByChristie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAREbyChristie has been in business since early 2020. The company mission, "Creating a Roadmap for Eldercare" was built by founder, Christie Freeze.

After Christie had served more than 4,000 family caregivers and witnessed the missing link to navigating that role, she realized that she loved connecting resources based on specific situations. 

That's why she offers a do-it-yourself (DIY) Roadmap, The CareGETTER System For Caregiving Success, and the 1:1 Strategy Session to adult children and family caregivers through CAREbyChristie. These services empower families to make the best decisions with their loved ones for preferred outcomes.

Christie's goal is to bridge the gap between caregiving resources and holistic health needs for family caregivers. She isn't bound geographically to help families with these challenges though she primarily serves clients in Indiana.

Learn more about CAREbyChristie at:

www.carebychristie.com

www.facebook.com/CAREbyChristie

www.instagram.com/ShareTheCARE_Show

Podcast (visit your favorite streaming service and search @ShareTheCare)

Next month, Christie will be launching a video course on her CareGETTER System For Caregiving Success. If you want to join the waitlist or get updates via email, send Christie a message at [email protected]

End of Life Planning: Safe Guarding Your Quality of Life

It’s important to have your attorney prepare powers-of-attorney documents so that when you can no longer act for yourself, the documents will convey on other trusted people the authority to act on your behalf. But when it comes to actually using those documents at the time of a health-care crisis, clear and powerful documents are just the beginning. The decision-points can (and must) be put down on paper in advance, but when it comes to end-of-life situations, the clarity on which we lawyers thrive can be very hard to find.

 

Sitting in your attorney’s office, you may have been quite certain about health-care decisions. Maybe you don’t want your life prolonged by a battery of aggressive treatments, where these would not preserve your quality of life. Perhaps you know you don’t want blood transfusions, dialysis, repeated courses of antibiotics and chemotherapy, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or breathing and feeding tubes. You know you want to die at home, surrounded by loved ones, at a time when you retain presence of mind to make your peace.

 

But that goal doesn’t just happen from wishing it and stating it. It happens with additional careful preparation for the realities. As the end of life approaches, the clarity we lawyers enjoy can be elusive. When a person gets a prognosis of two to five years (maybe), where, along that continuum, would be the time to start declining aggressive treatment? When there’s always one more intervention that may (or may not) produce a good result? When one decision could create an ever-widening array of complications? When, step by step, the patient becomes less and less able to exercise autonomy, and where treatment decisions by caregivers are not in line with the care the patient was clear about when she was sitting in the lawyer’s office? 

 

No matter how clear the powers-of-attorney documents, with all these imponderables, you can end up in a situation many miles away from what you wanted. And there’s no possible do-over.

 

Powerful and clear power-of-attorney documents are an essential first step and we are glad to take care of that part. Beyond that, though, thorough preparation is essential.

 

Consider that the best result may be one that cares for comfort right now, in the moment.

The question is not necessarily about how long life can be prolonged. The question may be, rather, how comfort can be maintained – in this moment, and then the next moment, and the next. The question is how life can be made better right now.

 

Make concrete plans.

These include specifying what you want to happen if you’re no longer able to live independently; choosing wisely whom you want to act for you, to make sure your plans will be followed; being ready with your health-care documents before you find yourself deposited in the emergency room or ICU; and seeking the reassurance that your loved ones will be cared-for when you’re no longer there. Judy MacDonald Johnson has prepared simple, forthright worksheets to help with this process, here.  She speaks about these worksheets in this moving video.

 

There is no doubt that the process in safeguarding quality of life at the end of it is possibly the most challenging of all. But if that process can create as much pleasure as possible through an extremely difficult time of life, and if forthrightly engaging in that process would facilitate a passing more in line with what we would envision, the worth of the process will be felt. The transition will be smoother and more meaningful for the dying person, and a kinder legacy will be left behind for those who accompany us on this journey.

Reach out to our office today to discuss how we can help you or a loved one with planning.

 

 

When To Shut Down The Pacemaker

[Pacemakers] prolong lives, but “all those people will face decisions down the road,” Dr. Mueller said. “’Do I keep it going? Do I turn it off?’” Physicians have similar questions, including what kinds of patients confront these choices and who usually winds up making these decisions.

 Do you or a loved one live with a pacemaker or implanted defibrillator? These devices keep the clock ticking, so to speak. But when you are making end-of-life plans, when is the right time to turn the pacemaker off? This scenario is all too common and is presenting challenges in geriatric medicine and palliative care.

Recently, The New Old Age Blog took a look at this perplexing issue in an article titled “A Decision Deferred: Turning Off the Pacemaker.”

Compounding the problem is the fact that standard medical directives are designed with feeding tubes and breathing support in mind. Rarely do such legal instruments address the question of a pacemaker, implanted defibrillator or other surgically implanted electronic heart monitor. These devices may extend life, and maybe not for the better, but without the directive who is empowered to direct when or even whether they should be turned off? 

Simply put: no one.

So how many patients with these devices have built their wishes (whether on or off) into their plans and medical directives? In one survey of 150 elderly and dying Mayo clinic patients, more than half had a medical directive (and only that -- a bad statistic in itself). However, only one medical directive addressed the issue of the patient’s defibrillator.

Reference: The New York Times – The New Old Age Blog (January 29, 2014) “A Decision Deferred: Turning Off the Pacemaker”

Health Care Decisions When Family Is No Longer There

“The presumption is that everyone has someone available, someone most likely younger or in better health, and better able to carry out one’s wishes or make decisions with your guidance ...” But not everyone does.

When it comes time to make life-and-death health decisions on your behalf, what do you do if you have no “family” to name as your healthcare proxy or as the agent on your power of attorney?

The New Old Age blog of The New York Times recently took up the question of “When There’s No Family.”

This is an especially difficult problem for many seniors.  They oftentimes need someone to wield a power of attorney and even a medical directive to go to bat in their interests with medical staff, not to mention settling aspects of the estate. While there are close friends for many seniors even in lieu of family, it is still not uncommon to be without even these.

According to the American Bar Association’s Commission on Law and Aging, “perhaps 4 percent of older adults are ‘the unbefriended elderly,’ a chilling phrase referring to those who cannot make decisions for themselves, have no advance directive or surrogate decision maker, and have no family or friends able to assist.”

Unfortunately, there are few easy solutions. Even engaging a professional to serve in such capacities can be a difficult road, too. The professional will be bound to certain standards and difficult legal requirements. In addition, not everyone can serve in this capacity, especially the medical staff an elderly person may have come to befriend and rely upon.

Fortunately, solutions are emerging -- like the notion of a “care community” of elderly individuals looking after one another, financially, medically and often legally.

Whether such a solution is open to you, it is still absolutely vital to have robust advanced directives
concerning end-of-life decisions. Make sure you have appointed someone you know and trust to speak for you and do for you when you cannot. The importance of having your end-of-life wishes committed to writing cannot be overemphasized.

For more information on health care representation, please visit out website at: http://www.hunterlawoffice.net%20

Reference: The New York Times – The New Old Age (September 23, 2013) “When There’s No Family”

New Tool Measures Brain Activity Of The Unconscious

The new tool, developed by researchers from Italy’s University of Milan, could provide doctors with a more objective method that gauges the complexity of a patient’s consciousness.

Advances in brain science keep us informed and help us better understand how the brain functions. And when it comes to making end-of-life plans, the more we know the better off we are at making informed decisions for our well-being and the well-being of our loved ones.

A recent Forbes article, titled “Tool That Looks For Consciousness In The Brain Could Change End-Of-Life Decisions,” considers new science that may change the way many end-of-life decisions are made.

Historically, doctors have used MRI machines to scan the brain for activity in response to verbal stimuli. However, this method is said to be of little value in determining “consciousness,” as even patients in a so-called “vegetative state” may exhibit significant brain activity. In fact, the likelihood of patient recovery of such patients is difficult to determine via this MRI approach.

A new tool developed in Italy offers new hope. It operates in three fundamental steps. First, a magnetic pulse is sent into the brain to “wake it up.” Then, an EEG machine measures the brain wave activity in response to the pulse. Finally, and most significantly, the complexity of consciousness is measured by a formula, instead of merely measuring brain activity.

The problem point, emotionally, scientifically and philosophically, is consciousness; when is it there and when is it not?

Even with this, and other potential future medical advancements, there remains a gray area regarding the issue of patient recovery when it comes to the brain. Consequently, you need to ensure that your advance health care directives and organ donation (or non-donation) wishes are current and communicated with your loved ones and physician.

For more information on this, please feel free to visit our website at: http://www.hunterlawoffice.net

Reference: Forbes (August 17, 2013) “Tool That Looks For Consciousness In The Brain Could Change End-Of-Life Decisions”