NURSING HOME CARE---Do you want to be placed in a nursing home?

Question 8: Do you want to be put into a nursing home?
If so, for how long, under what conditions,
and for what purposes?

     If you lose the ability to take care of yourself,
the question of nursing-home placement will be raised.
While you are still in good health, you might think
that living in a nursing home would be a fate worse than death.
But before you declare you never want to live in a nursing home,
you should explore the question as deeply as you can.

     You might be rejecting nursing homes because of misconceptions.
How much actual information and experience
do you have with nursing homes and other forms of assisted living?
If you have a solid basis for your views,
this is the place to explain the background
of your decisions about nursing-home placement.
If your rejection of such institutions is based in reality,
then your decisions are more likely to be respected.

     Is there any middle ground between death and nursing home?
One rational thing you could do is visit various nursing homes
that could be possible places for you to live if the need arose.
Also you should consider the possibility of a temporary placement
in a nursing home, while you recover from a problem
that usually does have a predictable period of convalescence.
A nursing home can provide a needed break
for those who have been caring for you at home.

     But because some of these 'temporary' relocations
stretch into placements that become permanent,
it might be wise for you to project some limits on nursing-home care.
For example, if you do not recover your health
well enough to return home within two years,
and if you have also affirmed your right to die at the best time,
perhaps it is now appropriate to begin your end-of-life planning.
How long would you approve living in a nursing home?

     The nursing-home decision often takes place on the cusp between
being mentally able to conduct your own life and losing that capacity.
Thus the best thinking you can provide
while you are still clearly able to conduct your own life
will help those who must decide for you if you lose mental capacity.
While you still have all your mental faculties,
you probably do not want to live in a nursing home.

106    YOUR LAST YEAR: CREATING YOUR ADVANCE DIRECTIVE FOR MEDICAL CARE

The selection above is the beginning of Question 8 from the book:
Your Last Year: Creating Your Own Advance Directive for Medical Care.
If you click this title, you will see the complete table of contents.
This discussion of nursing home placement takes up 6 pages.
If you would like to see one person's Answer to this Question,
go to James Park's Advance Directive for Medical Care.
Scroll down to Answer 8.

Go to the index page for Your Last Year:
Creating Your Own Advance Directive for Medical Care.

Go to the Portal for Advance Directives.

Go to the Right-to-Die Porta l.

Go to the Medical Ethics index page.

Go to the DEATH index page.

Go to the opening page for this website:
An Existential Philosopher's Museum.

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.