Naming Test #4 — Advance Care Planning

“Who Ya Gonna Name?” leads off our popular Advance Care Planning for Smarties series of community classes. See more about our classes at yourcaringhouse.org/resources.

Step #1

Step #1 in advance care planning is selecting who will make health care decisions for you if you’re not able to speak for yourself.

To help you select, we’ve created the Who Ya Gonna Name? grid that we review in class. The grid covers the seven top tests (criteria) for evaluating who to name from among your family and friends.

Test #4: Can you talk with them about personal beliefs and issues that matter?

Why does it matter? For your Agent to be effective for you, you’ve got to communicate with them about your values, about your beliefs, about life and death. Not everyone can do that, or do it well.

Tips:

  • Recognize that different family members have different skills. Some are good with money. Some are good with personal issues.

Can you talk with them?