Elder law practice offers guidance for end-of-life wishes

Elder Law Practice of Timothy L. Takacs is participating in a massive effort to highlight the importance of advance health-care decision-making — an effort that has culminated in the formal designation of April 16 as National Healthcare Decisions Day.

Advance directives allow individuals to document end-of-life wishes in the event that they are terminally ill or critically injured and unable to talk or communicate.

As an organization committed to increasing awareness of advance care planning, Takacs is providing a checklist that individuals can use to talk about their wishes with family, friends and health-care providers.

The checklist, “25 Suggested Topics to Discuss with Your Health Care Agent,” is available for free to download at tn-elderlaw.com/Family_Resources. Families looking for additional guidance on how to have conversations about end-of-life wishes can access a free kit from The Conversation Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging end-of life discussions. Access the kit at theconversationproject.org/starter-kit/intro.

“National Healthcare Decisions Day is an important day of awareness and education focused on encouraging everyone, including those who are healthy and in the prime of their life, to think about and document care treatment preferences before a crisis,” said Takacs, a certified elder law attorney whose Hendersonville-based practice has been assisting clients with advance planning for more than 20 years. “As a result of National Healthcare Decisions Day, fewer families and health-care providers will have to struggle with making difficult health-care decisions in the absence of guidance from the patient, and health-care providers and facilities will be better equipped to address advance health-care planning issues before a crisis and be better able to honor patient wishes when the time comes to do so.”