Illness can impact many aspects of your life including your work life, finances, social life and your plans for the future. Planning ahead can help to ensure that you aren’t making decisions during a time of crisis. Advance care planning is a process that helps you think about health care decisions. In addition you may want to consider:
- Making an appointment with an attorney to make or update your will and/or draw up a durable power of attorney for financial decisions
- Reviewing your health insurance so that you know what will be covered as you make future healthcare decisions
- Updating your life insurance policy as needed
- Ensuring that your loved ones and physicians have copies of your advance directives
- Writing down your financial information including bank name, account numbers and locations of safe deposit keys
- Talking with your employer about your current health status and whether or not you plan to return to work (your employer should provide you with information about Disability and other benefits)
Facing a serious illness can bring challenges and tough decisions. Here are some ways you can support yourself during this time:
- Look at the ways that you have coped successfully with difficulty in the past
- Think about what you want, and what you don’t want, during end-of-life treatment
- Examine your priorities and values, and share them with those you love
- Communicate with loved ones, you may want to reconcile old disagreements or concerns
- Take tangible steps, such as establishing advance directives to ensure that your wishes are followed and your family is supported.
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