There was a brief moment a few years ago, when Terri Schiavo was a political football, that a lot of people thought about it, but then…

Okay, so most of us are terrible procrastinators, especially when it comes to making long-term decisions. Wayne Gretzky hits us with, “Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.” Ouch!

But this one is easier than it sounds

People who teach and write about time management say that one of the best ways to beat procrastination is to break tasks down into easy to accomplish steps. If you put “advance directive” on your to-do list today, when do you think it would get done? It probably wouldn’t.

So this post isn’t so much about advance directives as it is about taking a single step: print out the advance directive form for your state.

All you have to do is go to the American Hospital Association’s site called Put It In Writing where they have a link to a page with forms for all 50 states. Or, you can go directly to the 50 states page, and print out a copy or two from your state. Easy so far.

When you’re done with that, add this to your to-do list: Read and fill in the form.

That’s about it. Once you’ve done that, here are a few additional, easy to accomplish steps:

• Get your witness and advocate signatures as needed
• Put the original in a safe place where someone can find it–not a safe deposit box
• Give photocopies to your advocate/alternate and anyone else that might become involved in your health care
• Discuss it with them

POLST stands for Physician’s Order for Life Sustaining Treatment.

A POLST Paradigm form is a brightly colored, medical order form, used to write orders indicating life-sustaining treatment wishes for seriously ill patients. It addresses two needs. It turns treatment wishes of an individual (something you might find on an advanced directive) into actionable medical orders for emergency responders, and then makes it portable.

It solves the problem that EMS generally can’t act on medical wishes for withholding treatment unless a doctor is involved. The POLST document is signed by the patient and their doctor in advance of the possibility of the arrival of emergency care. It doesn’t take the place of an advanced directive because it’s only used in very specific situations. There’s a great FAQ from the Oregon site and a Word document from the Washington State Aging & Disability Services Administration.

The Oregon POLST covers the following areas:

• Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) vs Do Not Resuscitate (DNR)
• Medical Interventions
• Antibiotics
• Artificially Administered Nutrition

It’s not available for use in every state, though there are efforts in many states to adopt the POLST Paradigm. You can see which states honor them on the POLST site. As of September, 2008 there were about nine states that honor a POLST.

Five Wishes, from Aging With Dignity, has been described as, “the Living Will with a Heart and Soul”. More importantly, Five Wishes achieves simplicity and understandability in a document that is accepted as a legal document in forty states. It’s also unique in that it combines a durable power of attorney for healthcare with a living will. In situations where they are separate documents, the person who has been designated in the power of attorney must still familiarize themself with the wishes of the individual for which they’re taking responsibility. That means that there must still be a living will, or some other clear statement of wishes.

The appeal of the Five Wishes approach is that it puts it into plain English that anyone can understand and provides a great starting point for anyone wanting to make their wishes known. The five wishes are:

1. The Person I want to Make Care Decisions for Me When I Can’t
2. The Kind of Medical Treatment I want Or Don’t Want
3. How Comfortable I Want to Be
4. How I Want People to Treat Me
5. What I want My Loved Ones to Know

You can find more on Five Wishes at the Aging With Dignity site: www.agingwithdignity.org

And, just in case you’re thinking we’re attorneys, we’re not. If you’re unsure about a legal issue, consult someone who’s licensed to practice in your area. Thanks.