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Guide to Legal Issues in Life-Limiting Conditions
The Guide
to Legal Issues in Life-Limiting Conditions was produced as
part of AHLA's public interest commitment to serve as a public resource
on selected healthcare legal issues and can be downloaded at no
cost.
After reading or downloading the Guide, please fill out
the following survey
to evaluate the content of this document and to help us better
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The Legal Guide to Life-Limiting Conditions provides an
overview of the key legal and practical issues that arise in the care of
individuals who face a life-limiting condition or who must care for
a loved one with a life-limiting condition. As an aid to the planning
process, the Guide is organized around the continuum of care
beginning with healthy individuals who are able to live at home, to
independent retirement communities, assisted living, long term care, and
an eventual return to the home with the aid of hospice services.
Dr. Ira Byock, one of the foremost experts on caring for those at the
end of life, endorsed the Guide for many different audiences:
"This Guide deserves a place on the desk of any attorney,
physician, nurse, case manager, or social worker who helps elderly or
ill clients think about and plan for the future. It sits on mine."
2007-2008 AHLA President Elisabeth Belmont assessed the publication's
importance to the public. "Individuals with life-limiting conditions
find themselves facing a host of complex decisions, often at a time when
they are in crisis. Making important decisions when a loved one is
vulnerable and in need is difficult at best. This Guide
provides key questions to guide families in making decisions along what
might be considered the 'customary' chronic care continuum. It stresses
that individuals should plan for the future and make informed choices
now to ensure that their wishes are known at a future time when their
physical and/or mental functioning may be impaired. This type of
planning is particularly important in view of the recent Terri Schiavo
situation," Belmont said.
Elise Brennan, past Chair of the Health Lawyers' Public Interest
Committee, addressed how this publication is a strong expression of the
Association's public interest mission: "Helping those who are making
decisions about their own care or the care of their loved ones is an
important activity of the American Health Lawyers Association and
demonstrates a significant way that the Association serves the public
interest."
Authors:
Elisabeth Belmont, task force co-leader,
MaineHealth,
Portland, ME
Barbara L. Miltenberger, task force co-leader, Husch
& Eppenberger
LLC, Jefferson City, MO
J. Kay Felt, Dykema & Gossett PLLC, Detroit, MI
Elizabeth M. Foley, HCR ManorCare, Toledo, OH
Gavin J. Gadberry, Underwood, Wilson, Berry, Stein
& Johnson PC,
Amarillo, TX
Christopher C. Puri, Tennessee Health Care Association,
Nashville,
TN
Lisa Diehl Vandecaveye, Botsford Health Care Continuum,
Farmington
Hills, MI
Related Files
Life-Limiting Conditions Guide (PDF File)
Life-Limiting Conditions Overview (PDF File)
We All Need to Plan for the Future (PDF File)
Choosing an Independent Living Arrangement (PDF File)
Long Term Care Options (PDF File)
Choosing a Long Term Care Facility (PDF File)
Settling Into a Long Term Care Facility (PDF File)
Care and Comfort at the End of Life (PDF File)
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