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 Social Work Roles and Opportunities in Advanced Directives and Health Care Decision-Making Summary of a document written by Anita Rosen, MSW, Ph.D., and John O'Neill For the full paper, link to www.socialworkers.org/practice/aging/advdirct.asp. Surveys indicate that only 10% to 25% of Americans have documented their end-of-life choices or selected a health care agent to make decisions on their behalf. A 1991 study indicated that one of the greatest barriers to advance directive completion was that patients waited for their doctors to bring up the subject. Many health care providers assume patients will bring up the subject. Physicians are reluctant to discuss advance directives because they lack the necessary knowledge or training to do so, think they are unnecessary for young people, do not get paid for the time they spend discussing the topic, or do not feel death is an appropriate professional outcome. Studies have shown that neither family members nor physicians can accurately guess end-of-life preferences.  |
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