Dementia patients must have the right to participate in all decisions concerning their care. Every person in this world has the same equal rights, no matter the situation. Doctors, caregivers, nurses, and even family members brush off the request of the person suffering from dementia each and every day. Most people call this carelessness while others call it freedom and in all reality, it is far from freedom. Luckily, there are many people who fight for the freedom everyone deserves. The majority of "Health professionals are usually keen to keep people with dementia at the center of decisions. Independent advocacy can support this by giving the extra time and skills needed to help people have a voice without the tensions of any other role" …show more content…
In most facilities an initiative lifestyle has been organized to give people with dementia a voice in how and where they are cared for (White). This is how things should be everywhere in the world when it comes to people with dementia. People affected by this disease don’t need people to tell them what to do or make decisions for them, they need the freedom to do it themselves so they don’t give up. Although incapacity is common, many persons with dementia are capable of making their own medical and research decisions (Kim, Karlawish, and Caine). At the early stages of dementia, a will needs to be made so medical wishes can be granted. When people are given the freedom of choice, they are much happier, they live longer, and they have a better attitude about the disease they are suffering from. Individuals that get dementia did not get it by choice, but they live through it day by day with strength and the ability to live …show more content…
In What Dying People Want, Kuhl comments, "Dying involves choice"(xviii). People choose what they wear, what they do, and what they will eat on a day to day basis. Choosing how, when, or why sick people die is just like an everyday decision for them. This however, has not been accomplished by some individuals in this Country. Americans have the right of choice. When a patient communicates the desire to die, the inspection of acceptability for palliative care begins instantly. Inspections include evaluation of pain management, depression, anxiety, family burnout, spirituality and other observed issues (Baird and Rosenbaum 100). When working or living with an elder, never ignore the words "I want to die". If this is ignored, that person will not receive their wishes they deserve. Countries are starting to understand that people should be able to die if they choose, "In the United States there are assisted dying laws restricted to terminally ill and mentally competent adults" (Firth). The assisted dying law is only in Oregon, Montana, Washington, Vermont, and California. That is five states out of fifty states. This must be expanded to all fifty states because all individuals have the right of this law. In 2013, Vermont passed an "End of Life Choices" bill. This bill allows terminally ill people to get
This ethical scenario presents an 86 year old female with numerous health issues and chronic illnesses. Mrs. Boswell’s advancing Alzheimer’s disease makes it extremely difficult to initiate dialysis, leading her physician to conclude a poor quality of life. The ethical dilemma portrayed in this case is between nonmaleficence and autonomy. Health care workers should focus on promoting the patient’s overall wellbeing and weigh the benefits and risks of the course of action, while also considering what the family declares they want done. Since the patient is deemed unable to make decisions, the goal is to collaborate with family, assess patient quality of life, address prognosis, and establish realistic care goals.
Dementia is common among a large population of elderly people. The disease affects not only the individual diagnosed, but also the caregivers that work towards making their life comfortable in the end. Understanding and learning about the disease is crucial in helping those that experience or live with someone who has dementia. The services and support that are currently in affect for elderly people with dementia and the caregivers is poor, and ineffective because of the lack of research and information on the topic.
Currently, in the United States, 12% of states including Vermont, Oregon, and California have legalized the Right to Die. This ongoing debate whether or not to assist in death with patients who have terminal illness has been and is still far from over. Before continuing, the definition of Right to Die is, “an individual who has been certified by a physician as having an illness or physical condition which can be reasonably be expected to result in death in 24 months or less after the date of the certification” (Terminally Ill Law & Legal Definition 1). With this definition, the Right to die ought to be available to any person that is determined terminally ill by a professional, upon this; with the request of Right to Die, euthanasia must be
Social Attitudes Survey noted that 78% of respondents believe that “the law should require doctors to carry out the instructions of a Living Will” (Park et al, 2007). These decisions become important once patients lose their mental capacity, are unconscious, or unable to communicate” (BMA, 2009). The Mental Capacity Act 2005 defines an “advance decision” as a decision made by a person 18 or over, when he or she has the capacity to do so. The implications of a Living Will, make the case against legalising assisted dying weaker. This is because if a person is legally allowed to set out which treatments they will or will not agree to, and can refuse life sustaining treatments by creating a legal document, then why shouldn’t an individual in extreme pain who is able to make the request at the time be able to ask for assistance in
America is a champion of the freedom of choice. Citizens have the right to choose their religion, their political affiliation, and make personal decisions about nearly every facet of their daily lives. Despite all of these opportunities, one choice society commonly ignores is that of deciding how one’s life will end. Death seems like a highly unpredictable, uncontrollable occurrence, but for the past 17 years, citizens of Oregon have had one additional option not offered to most Americans in the deciding of their end-of-life treatment. Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act (DWDA), passed in 1994, allows qualified, terminally-ill Oregon patients to end their lives through the use of a doctor-prescribed, self-administered, lethal prescription (Office of Disease Prevention and Epidemiology, n.d.). The nationally controversial act has faced injunctions, an opposing measure, and has traveled to the Supreme Court, however it still remains in effect today.
When faced with a terminal illness a person has to go through a process of thinking. What will happen to me? How long will I suffer? What kind of financial burden am I going to leave with my family when I am gone? What are my options? For many years the only legal options were to try a treatment plan, palliative care, hospice, and eventually death. For residents of Washington State, Oregon, and Vermont there is another option. They have the option to end their own life with a prescription from their physicians.
Every older people suffering from dementia or any mental illness should contribute to decision-making process if able on about the services the resident gets and is empowered to practice choice and control over his or her way of life. Healthcare professionals need to offer residents with dementia significant parts in making their own particular care plans. We should give the majority of the residents as much decision as possible around both their care and environment.
Mollie is the patient in our case study. Mollie lives with her daughter and son in law, both in their 70’s. A home health aide assists Mollie five days a week for three hours each day. At age 94, Mollie is an older adult, considered to be part of a vulnerable population, at risk for hearing, visual and mobility deficits. This at risk population can experience changes in cognitive or physical status making the activities of daily living difficult to perform (Meiner, 2011). As people like Mollie age, gradually becoming less able to function independently, their grown children, potential caregivers, may be preoccupied with the demands of their own lives and not prepared to care for an older
One of the many concerns is allowing incompetent individuals making this irreversible decision, which is why, “all have agreed that this end-of-life option should apply on to competent individual’s”(113). In addition, people opposed to this method argue that patients demanding this process are suffering from depression and not able to make decisions; yet, Rosenfled explains that practitioners most ensure that patients who consent to this medical intervention do it voluntarily, knowingly and
As patients come closer to the end of their lives, certain organs stop performing as well as they use to. People are unable to do simple tasks like putting on clothes, going to the restroom without assistance, eat on our own, and sometimes even breathe without the help of a machine. Needing to depend on someone for everything suddenly brings feelings of helplessness much like an infant feels. It is easy to see why some patients with terminal illnesses would seek any type of relief from this hardship, even if that relief is suicide. Euthanasia or assisted suicide is where a physician would give a patient an aid in dying. “Assisted suicide is a controversial medical and ethical issue based on the question of whether, in certain situations, Medical practioners should be allowed to help patients actively determine the time and circumstances of their death” (Lee). “Arguments for and against assisted suicide (sometimes called the “right to die” debate) are complicated by the fact that they come from very many different points of view: medical issues, ethical issues, legal issues, religious issues, and social issues all play a part in shaping people’s opinions on the subject” (Lee). Euthanasia should not be legalized because it is considered murder, it goes against physicians’ Hippocratic Oath, violates the Controlled
Terminally ill patients no longer wish to have their lives artificially prolonged by expensive, painful, or debilitating treatments and would rather die quietly. The patients do not wish to prolong their life and they may not wish to commit suicide themselves or worse, are physically incapable of doing so. People have the right to their own destiny and living in the U.S we have acquired freedom. The patients Right to Self Determination Act gives the patient the power to decide how, when and why they choose to die. In "Editorial Exchange: Death with Dignity: Reopen Assisted-Suicide Debate." The Canadian Press Sep 27 2013 ProQuest. 7 June 2015” Doctor Donald Low and his terminally ill friends plea to physician assisted suicide in an online video. He states that it is their rights as cancer patients to make the decision to pass, but he is denied. Where is the equality? Patients who are on dialysis or hooked up to respirators have the choice to end their lives by ending treatment. However, patients who are not dependent on life support cannot choose when they can pass. Many patients feel that because of their illness that life is not worth living for and that life has already been taken from them due to lack of activities they can perform. Most of the terminally ill patients are bedridden with outrageous amounts of medication and they don’t want family members having to care for them
In this paper I will discuss the issue of stigma regarding Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and dementia in older adults, which was depicted in the movie ‘Still Alice’. This theme became most prominent to me in the scene in which Alice wished that she had cancer instead of AD. Alice compared AD to cancer, expressing that the general public had created awareness to support those living and fighting cancer, while she felt there was little support for individuals with AD. Confronted with her illness and the stigma of AD, Alice demonstrates her struggle to find meaning and hope in her life. This inspired me to focus on the current stigma that exists about dementia and AD, and how it may be mitigated in my practice towards becoming a Registered Nurse (RN) in order to provide quality nursing care.
“Difficult, depressing, and tragic” are a few of the descriptions generally associated with illness. Those who suffer from dementia, especially, undergo a realm of these characterizations. With this adversity in mind, most people generate a basic understanding based on education rather than personal experience. It is this preconception that can prevent us from gaining a true insight of one’s reality.
Increased life expectancies have many reconsidering whether the fountain of youth is merely a legend. For many families, longer life spans have allowed them to spend more time with loved ones, time that may not paint the picture imagined.
STEEMAN, E., DE CASTERLÉ, B. D., GODDERIS, J. & GRYPDONCK, M. 2006. Living with early-stage dementia: a review of qualitative studies. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 54, 722-738.