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In addition to supporting older adults, the Geriatric Services program offers information and resources to the caregivers and family members of older adults.

Health Care Proxy

You provide your family with peace of mind when you take part in advance care planning. According to the Centers for Disease Contol and Prevention, advance care planning can be a gift you give yourself and your family. It is about doing what you can to ensure that your wishes and preferences are consistent with the health care treatment you might receive if you were unable to speak for yourself or make your own decisions.

While many of us do not like to think that we will ever need such a plan, too often the lack of advance care planning can result in questioning, confusion, or disagreement among family members trying to envision what you would want if you were unable to speak for yourself.

Completing a Health Care Proxy is the first step in advance care planning.
Health care proxy - in English.pdf
Health care proxy - in Spanish.pdf

Advance Care Planning/MOLST

Beth Warner, DO, geriatrician, is the medical director of Cooley Dickinson Geriatric Services. She is also the Cooley Dickinson physician who is responsible for rolling out the Medical Orders for Life-sustaining Treatment or the MOLST initiaitve in our community.

MOLST is a new way to document and honor patients' preferences for life-sustaining treatment.

MOLST is not an advance directive. Advance directives are legal, not medical, documents. They specify who, (a health care agent), or what, (information on a living will,) represents a person's preferences, if the person loses capacity to make medical decisions. Advance directives go into effect only after a patient is declared incapable of making their own medical decisions.

MOLST is also:

 


  • part of a Massachusetts and nationwide effort;

  • a medical document that may be used in the context of advance care planning;

  • suitable for patients of any age with an advanced illness and is a valid medical order for the types of treatments that attempt to keep a person alive. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an example of a life-sustaining treatment. Health professionals are required to attempt CPR when a patient's heart or breathing stops, unless they have medical orders (like a MOLST form) that would detail other instructions.



About the MOLST role-play video:
In this 21-minute role-play video, a "patient," a family member, and the patient's doctor discuss the patient's health conditions, medical treatments, possible outcomes, and the MOLST form. MOLST, Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment, is a new way to document and honor patients' preferences. This video and its content are not intended to provide medical advice. Instead, the video is designed to demonstrate the complexities involved in developing an advance care plan.


MOLST forms are available from your doctor. Learn more about MOLST.