Advance Directives for Elderly Community Residing Adults

With the combined effects of a rapidly growing elderly population and advances in medicaltechnology, the need for decision making about appropriate medical treatments for elderly individualshas increased. Education about advance directives, legal documents which identify patients' decisionsregarding medical treatments, has not been systematically directed toward elderly adults residing in thecommunity. To begin this systematic education, the proposed project will develop a prototype videoabout advance directives for elderly adults residing in the community. A pilot study to examine thefeasibility of using this video for education and evaluate the usefulness of this tape will be conducted.Advance directives can be used by any individual, but they are particularly useful to the elderly who mayneed a decision about medical treatments made for them in the future. Unfortunately, many elderlyindividuals are not aware of advance directives and their applications. The Patient Self DeterminationAct was developed to educate those entering nursing homes, hospitals, and those using home healthcare about advance directives. However, information received at the time medical services are neededoften arrives too late to be most effective. The proposed project will bring education about advancedirectives to healthier individuals, who are able to use the educational information by executing anadvance directive.