The Dementia Healthcare Directive and Why It Belongs in Every Estate Plan

Most people know they should have a will or trust. Fewer are familiar with the healthcare directive — and fewer still have heard of a dementia-specific healthcare directive, sometimes called a dementia directive or Alzheimer’s directive. Yet for anyone beginning to show signs of dementia, this document may be one of the most personal and important they will ever sign.

What Is a Standard Healthcare Directive, and Where Does It Fall Short?

Wyoming law authorizes healthcare powers of attorney (designate who makes healthcare decisions) and healthcare directives (describes your wishes for life-sustaining treatment). These documents are essential, and everyone should have them. But a standard advance directive is typically written with a terminal illness or a sudden catastrophic event in mind — a stroke, a serious accident, an end-stage cancer diagnosis. Dementia is different. A person with advancing dementia may spend years in a state
where they are neither imminently dying nor able to make meaningful decisions for themselves. The questions that arise during that long middle period — about hospitalization, aggressive treatment, participation in clinical trials, care settings, and quality of life — are often not addressed in a standard directive.

What Is a Dementia-Specific Healthcare Directive?

A dementia directive is a supplemental document to your healthcare power of attorney and advance directive – addressing the specific medical, personal, and ethical decisions that accompany a dementia diagnosis. It gives your healthcare agent a detailed roadmap and it protects that agent from the agonizing uncertainty of guessing what you would have wanted.

Speak Now, While You Can

Dementia takes many things. It should not be allowed to take your voice. A dementia-specific healthcare directive, prepared while you have capacity, ensures that the values you hold and the wishes you carry with you now will guide your care even when you can no longer express them yourself. It is a gift of clarity to the people who love you, and an act of self-determination that no disease can undo once it is properly documented.

The attorneys at Yonkee & Toner are experienced in helping Wyoming families prepare comprehensive estate and incapacity plans, including dementia directives tailored to each client’s unique circumstances, values, and wishes. We invite you to contact our office to schedule a consultation. Your voice matters. Let us help you preserve it.