“My sister was 45, when I told her she had Alzheimer’s,” Vaughn James, author of the “The Alzheimer’s Advisor,” recalls. James, a law professor at Texas Tech, subtitles his new book “A Caregiver’s Guide to Dealing with Tough Legal and Practical Issues,” and those in fact are his focus.
They should also be your focus, if you happen to be close to someone recently diagnosed with the disease. In fact, James, like his excellent book, is no-nonsense about the steps that must be taken immediately following diagnosis.
First, says the professor, “Call a lawyer by all means, and get a will written. But make sure that will is signed before 11:30 AM, because Alzheimer’s patients suffer from what is called ’sundowning.’ They get confused after that time of day.”
Next, says James, make sure the document called a Medical Power of Attorney (or Health Care Proxy, as it’s known in some states) is drawn up: meaning that someone is assigned to make health care decisions — which doctors to visit, what medicines to take – when the time comes that the patient can no longer exercise good judgment.
At the same time, a Durable Power of Attorney should be executed: meaning a document that assigns to someone responsible the duties of looking after a failing patient’s finances and property.
And finally, a Living Will should be drawn up: a document that, as James says with a grim chuckle “has nothing to do with living. But just tells people when and under what circumstances the patient wants the plug to be pulled.” Some states, the lawyer adds, make life simpler by combining Living Wills and Medical Power of Attorney provisions in the same document.
Those are the very first and most necessary steps that need to be taken, James says, when an Alzheimer’s diagnosis is given. But there are others, and we’ll explore them next week.
