Legal and Financial Responsibilities
Individuals with dementia have difficulty managing their business affairs. As they decline they cannot deposit checks, pay bills, sell personal property, or make personal health care decisions. A responsible person must have the legal authority to handle these matters. In many instances, individuals with dementia will lose capacity and become unable to make their own financial and medical decisions.
Caring for victims of Alzheimer’s disease requires what Elaine Brody and Carl Eisdorfer have described as “interminable care” as the death of the mind precedes the death of the body. Inevitably, physical death becomes a reality, and family members have described the long process of watching a loved one die as a “living funeral.” Ethical and moral decisions around care and death with dignity often present deep andprotracted crises.
Families face a variety of challenges when a loved one develops Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or a related disorder, including finding home health and day care services, making decisions about placement in nursing homes or other long-term care facilities, and coping with financial and legal matters.
Barring some treatment breakthrough, an Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis means that over time, affected individuals become increasingly less able to manage their own legal and financial affairs. They need to have others assume these responsibilities from them.
Steps to Understanding Legal Issues: Planning for the Future
Legal planning should begin soon after a diagnosis is made and includes putting in place documents that:
Authorize another person to make health care and financial decisions and
Include financial plans for long term care coverage.
Talk with your family and doctor about what medical treatments you want to receive in the event you become unable to communicate your wishes. You may wish to prepare an advance directive, a legal document that outlines your wishes for future medical treatment.
Organize all your financial and legal documents, as well as other important information (insurance policies, Social Security information, wills, etc.) in one place, and let your spouse and/or children know where to find them.
Learn about tax breaks for caregivers: in the U.S. that could include deductions for the dependent elder’s medical expenses, transportation to medical care, other expenses of care at home or in an institution, and more.
Prepare a will so that the patient’s wishes can be honored when it comes to distribution of any assets or income, and funeral arrangements.
Durable Power of Attorney
Drawing up a Durable Power of Attorney and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care Decisions are the most important legal steps that you can take in planning for the future care of a person with dementia. Remember that this planning must be done early in the illness while the person has the capacity to do so. A Durable Power of Attorney remains in effect, even after the person giving the power is no longer considered competent to handle his or her own affairs.
