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Answering the Difficult Questions
About Aging
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If the person could not care for
himself any longer, how would living arrangements
change?
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What is the level of worry
concerning the amount of money required for care?
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Have funeral arrangements been made?
What are the wishes for funeral, burial, or
cremation?
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Who can be trusted to make medical
or financial decisions if the person were unable to?
These are tough questions to answer. I
have friends who have ended up in therapy after trying
to answer them, but they need to be asked. Luckily, I
had conducted the exercise with my aunt and uncle and
executed the necessary documents to ensure their desires
and needs would be met.
Individual self worth and dignity are
important factors as we age. We need to allow the
individual the dignity and privacy we all want through
this process. If the individual does not want to discuss
the specific issues, honor that. The old saying, “all
things work out in the end” really is true. It might not
end as you envisioned, but when an individual reaches a
crisis state, situations tend to resolve themselves.
One last piece of advice that I hear
over and over for older individuals is to live life to
the fullest each day, doing what you want now. Their
biggest regret is not what they have done, but what they
haven’t.
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