The featured presenter is Barak Gaster, MD with University of Washington Medicine
VANCOUVER — Because people with dementia lose the ability to make decisions for themselves, it is important to provide family members guidance in advance about what kind of care we want to ease their burden and ensure our wishes will be honored.
PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center will host a seminar titled “Dementia and Advance Directives: Planning Care, Improving Care” on Tue. Oct. 8 from 3-4 p.m. at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center’s Health Education Center Auditorium A-B. The event is free and open to the public, no pre-registration is required.
The featured presenter is Barak Gaster, MD with University of Washington Medicine, who has created a free online Advance Directive for dementia with help from experts in the fields of geriatrics, neurology, and palliative care.
“The best time for patients to complete a dementia-specific advance directive would be before they develop signs of dementia,” said Dr. Gaster. “This is because even with early cognitive impairment, patients may lose the ability to complete complex planning about future medical decisions. As such, a directive like this ideally should be offered to patients before dementia occurs, as a supplement to a standard advance directive form.”
PeaceHealth Southwest is located at 400 NE Mother Joseph Place in Vancouver. For more information visit www.peacehealth.org.
