You’ve taken the time to create a health care directive with an attorney, but have you taken the time to share your plan with the people that matter the most?

A growing concern for seniors is that healthcare directives are not being honored as frequently as they should be, according to Santa Clarita elder law attorney Randall Kaiden of Kaiden Elder Law Group.

Enacting the orders of a health care directive can additionally be complicated by changing desires.

Related: Elder Care Law: The Long-Term Care Spectrum

A 2011 study conducted by sociologist Susan Shapiro revealed that 50 percent of the patients she interviewed did not want their power of attorney to make a decision without referring to their doctor. In addition, 75 percent of the interviewed patients allowed their doctor make the final decision despite their directive.  

Kaiden advises his clients to review and modify their directives every three to five years, noting that updating your health care directive can allow you to consider advances in medicine and empower your family to successfully advocate for you.

“There’s a fallacy … that you can outline every possible scenario that might happen to you medically,” said Kaiden. “Things change so often that what you thought 10 years ago no longer applies.”

Kaiden encourages his clients that are older than 70 to bring their directive to their doctor and execute a Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form, which will complement their existing advanced directives and become a portable medical order.

Your doctor’s familiarity with your medical history allows the  POLST form to serve as a legal recommendation that, in conjunction with your advanced directives, can set you up to be “far more likely to have the outcome that you would have wanted,” said Kaiden.

Conversations with your power of attorney, family and doctor can help ensure that they are able to follow your wishes as closely as possible.

In planning for the future, Kaiden also encourages his clients to explore creating personal care contracts. These contracts can utilize MediCal or veteran’s pension benefit plans to compensate relatives for caring for seniors as a medical expense.

There’s a growing trend where “there’s one child … who has given up certain things, maybe it’s a job or lifestyle to take care of Mom or Dad,” Kaiden said. “If there’s a personal contract where they’re actually compensated for this, then it tends to make the whole family feel better.”

“The majority of my business is re-doing estate plans and turning them into elder law plans, which incorporates the estate planning but also deals with all these elder law issues,” said Kaiden.

Interested first-time clients can take advantage of a complimentary initial consultation with the experienced attorneys at Kaiden Elder Law Group.

Randall Kaiden, J.D., LL.M.T., of Kaiden Elder Law Group is a Santa Clarita elder law attorney whose services cover estate planning, elder care law and the post-death administration of estates. The practice narrowed its focus to these three areas long ago in order to provide clients with exceptional services. A few things that set Kaiden apart from other Santa Clarita elder lawyers include his world-class legal services and compassion for helping seniors and their families. Kaiden is also a Santa Clarita VA aid and attendance attorney, as well as a Santa Clarita Medicaid attorney (medi-cal).

Randall Kaiden, J.D., LL.M.T.

Kaiden Elder Law Group, PC

27240 Turnberry Lane, Suite 200

Valencia, CA 91355

(661) 247-8433