In a continued effort to improve public understanding about issues related to serious illness and end-of-life care, reporters at Kaiser Health News recently wrote two key stories. The first, Alone and Aging: Creating a Safety Net for Isolated Seniors, discusses the growing number of seniors who find themselves alone when aging and end-of-life care becomes a reality. To address the growing problem of what’s become known among geriatric specialists as “elder orphans,” the American Geriatrics Society unveiled guidelines for a segment of these older adults who can no longer make their own medical decisions and have no designated surrogates.
The second story, California Tests Electronic Database for End-of-Life Wishes, highlights the recent rise in use of Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST), documents that give patients a choice of how much medical care they want in an emergency. Now, a coalition of emergency and social service providers in California is working to create an electronic registry for POLST forms so they will be available to first responders and medical providers when they are needed.
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is supporting Kaiser Health News reporters to develop news related to serious illness and end-of-life care. To learn more about these issues, take a look at more stories from KHN under its “Aging” column here.
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