Personal Health Planning specifies the route you wish to be honored in terms of health-related decisions. In such matters, we can act as the authorized and reliable advisors to you and involved health care advisors. In addition, we can draft a Representation Agreement or Advanced Directives to deal with future situations where you cannot promptly make significant decisions due to medical reasons. This will ensure that you are prepared if need be.
A Representation Agreement allows you to appoint a trusted individual to make healthcare decisions on your behalf, including refusing any life support mandates. This becomes extremely important when one does not have a spouse or children or if they believe their spouse and/or children are incompetent in making such decisions. There are two types of Representation Agreements: RA7 and RA9. RA7 is available to those who require immediate personal planning because their mental competency is in question, thereby jeopardizing their health wishes. This type of agreement is limited in its scope of application as it applies to routine financial decisions, and less common medical treatments and procedures. Additionally, a Monitor is required under s.7 of the Representation Agreement Act. They are the one’s accountable for making sufficient efforts to establish whether a representative is complying with the representative’s duties. RA9 takes a step further and deals with decisions of personal care (eg. refusal or consent of life support), extended health, and limited legal affairs.
Suppose you were to ever find yourself in a position unable to provide consent. In that case, Advanced Directives provide clear written instructions that either give or refuse consent to certain medical treatments and interventions. Unlike a Representation Agreement, no one is appointed to act on your behalf. Rather, health care professionals will follow the medical instruction outlining the treatment you wished for. You must comprehend the type of healthcare your instructions concern and the consequences that may follow when you agree or disagree with such treatment. This method proves useful when you and your family do not see eye-to-eye and do not have a family that could act as your representative. This mode is beneficial to the client as it allows you to have your wishes be carried regardless of having the capability of expression or not.
