You and your family can have good communication and decision-making skills and still run into unexpected challenges. You may be facing emotions that you've never had to deal with before. When emotions run high, thinking can quickly become clouded. Grace Hospice provides skilled medical social workers to guide you through these difficulties.

The following are terms you should be familiar with when making decisions about your or your family member's future:

• Healthcare Proxy and Advanced Directives
  • A healthcare proxy is someone that you appoint to make healthcare decisions for you, in the event that you are unable to express your wishes due to illness or incapacitation. An advance directive is very important for your healthcare proxy, as the directive should guide them in their decision making process. You should note that in your advance directive, not only can you specify whom you wish to act as your proxy, but you can also say whom you specifically do not want to act in this capacity.
    
  • An Advance Directive is a document in which you give instructions about your health care, what you want done or not done, if you can't speak for yourself. A written statement of instruction in a form recognized by individual state law that addresses the provision of health care in the event of incapacity. Forms of advanced directive vary from state to state, but they typically include the living will, the durable power of attorney for health care and the Health Care Proxy.
    
  • View or download the Oklahoma State Advanced Directive here. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
    
    
• Living Will
  • A document in which a person specifies the kind of life-saving and life-sustaining care and treatment he or she does or does not wish to receive in the event the person becomes both incapacitated and terminally ill. Many states have their own titles for a living will document such as "Directive to Physicians," "Declaration Concerning Health care," etc.
    
  • For More Information about Living Wills, Click Here
    
• Medical Durable Power of Attorney
  • This is a legal document through which a person appoints someone else, an "attorney-in-fact" or "agent," to act on the person's behalf in making medical treatment decisions in case of future incapacitation.
    
  • For More Information about Medical Durable Power of Attorney, Click Here
    
• Revocable Living Trust
  • A Living Trust is an arrangement in which a person transfers ownership of their assets from themselves to another entity, the trust. You can set up a trust with your own assets and retain complete management and control of the assets by acting as your own trustee, or you can designate someone else as trustee to manage the assets for you.
    
  • For More Information about Revocable Living Trusts, Click Here