Screening a Nursing Home

Visiting a nursing home and observing how patients interact with staff can tell you a lot about how happy residents are. You should also try to talk to the relatives of patients. What do they like - or not - about the place?

To be sure, a professional sales staff can tell you about the features and strong points about the facility. But the answers are understandably biased so full candor can hardly be expected. Family members, however, should be straight-forward. After all, you’re in the same situation and want what’s best for your loved one. 

Confusing Legal Terms

Elder Law and Estate Planning lawyers often use confusing terms to describe the documents that they prepare. One example is a “living trust” also called a “revocable trust” or “inter vivos trust”. All of these refer to a document that attempts to avoid probate by having a trust set up to take possession of a person’s assets and spell out the terms of distribution in the document, thus avoiding the need to file for probate (but not always).

“Living Will”, often a part of a document called an “advanced directive”, does not refer to a Last Will and Testament. It is a document which recites an individual’s wishes about end-of-life decisions such as when treatment should be halted and nature allowed to take its course.

“Last Will and Testament” describes a document that is filed for probate and designates who gets what of an individual’s assets when he or she passes away.

Don’t Change Your Will On Your Own!!!

Many people don’t understand that you cannot effectively change the terms of your will by simply crossing out language or adding new language and then adding your initials or your signature to your changes.

A change to a will, formally called a “codicil” or amendment, requires the same formalities that are necessary to make a will legally binding in the first place.

In practical terms what that means is a codicil must be prepared to change the terms of the will with necessary witness signatures and notarizations (if such is required where you signed your will). If that is not done, the amendments you desire will be considered null and void.

As an aside, if you need to change the terms of your will, please let me know. I can make sure that the codicil is done right.

Do You Have a Power of Attorney? Is it up-to-date?

A financial power of attorney is a document which allows someone else to act on your behalf if you are sick or out of the country. This power can be used to pay your bills and access your bank account, for instance. When you hear the term “attorney”, you probably think of a lawyer (also known as an attorney at law). The term actually means “representative” and the power of attorney document allows you to select people of your choice to make decisions for you. If you don’t have a “power of attorney” document and necessary financial decisions must be made when you are unable to make them yourself, your loved ones or others will need to go to court to have a guardian appointed. That will result in needless expense, aggravation and delay.

Medications and Their Effects on the Elderly

It is not commonly understood that medications have different effects when older people are the patients as opposed to younger people.

As we age, medications are often retained in the body for a longer period of time than when we were younger. The consequence is that if medications are not carefully prescribed and administered, there can be a buildup of medications which can have dangerous consequences for the person taking them.

Also, beware that painkillers themselves (opioids such as OxyContin in particular) can cause significant side effects such as balance problems which are more pronounced among older people because such things as balance are adversely affected as a person gets older independently of any drug intake.

In fact, the American Geriatric Society has published a list of drugs which people over the age of 65 should usually avoid. It’s called the Beers Criteria. Listed are such popular medications as Valium, Zanax and Ambien. Google “the Beers Criteria” for a full list.

Do You Need A Lawyer To Do Your Will?

No.

Maybe that’s a surprising answer coming from a lawyer. Whether it’s a good idea warrants a different response, however.

Sample Wills are readily available on the internet. But are they right for your circumstances? Do you have minor children or “special needs” offspring? Do you want to leave something to a niece or nephew? A so-called “simple will” would be a bad idea in each case.

A skilled lawyer’s most important role is not to prepare generic legal documents. Rather, it is to draft the right language for papers that are customized to your particular situation.

There’s another good reason to have a professional prepare your legal documents that’s usually not discussed, even by attorneys. Nobody’s perfect, of course. But if the lawyer messes up, your heirs can go against legal malpractice insurance (almost all of us have it). If the do-it-yourselfer” does it wrong, his family is out of luck.

Controlling the Behavior of Your Loved One with Alzheimer’s

Probably the most difficult aspect of dealing with someone with Alzheimer’s is coping with occasional physical aggression.

Understand that the person’s inability to communicate effectively causes frustration and resulting acting out. Keep things simple in both communication and environment, and that will probably diminish aggressive or angry conduct. Interestingly, it also appears that over-stimulation can generate an aggressive reaction. The best approach, again, is to keep life as simple as possible for the person. Unfamiliar events or surroundings can be very confusing and upsetting to a person with Alzheimer’s, and those feelings can result in a physical lashing-out.

Consider that when memory is lost, it is only immediate emotions that matter. Memory is no longer available to provide the individual with guidance as to what conduct is appropriate and what’s not. In a very literal sense, people with Alzheimer’s typically live in the moment. That’s all that matters. There is no sense of what happened 15 minutes ago or what is likely to happen 15 minutes hence.