Advance directives in Canada are instructions made by capable adults that pertain to future healthcare treatment choices at a time of incapacity. My experience as an ethicist working in an Ontario long-term care facility that provides medical treatment to patients with Alzheimer’s Dementia portrays a range of important ethical concerns that arise out of the use of advance directives, at least in terms of their current use. In this thesis I analyze composite case studies to identify the more prominent challenges that exist and I turn to the literature to seek ways to more clearly understand these problems and to determine if they can be overcome. What I conclude is that the use of advance directives with the Alzheimer’s Dementia population in long-term care, as it is currently used, is fraught with problems that are mainly irresolvable. I offer clinical and policy recommendations that are aligned with this view.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:WATERLOO/oai:uwspace.uwaterloo.ca:10012/4978 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Sokolowski, Marcia |
| Source Sets | University of Waterloo Electronic Theses Repository |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
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