General Advance Planning Resources
- Health Decisions Resources, February 2013
- Family Conversations About End-of-Life Care (Commission Director Charles Sabatino appeared on WAMU’s Diane Rehm radio show August 8, 2012.)
- Multi-State Health Care Power of Attorney. The Commission has published a booklet offering a simple durable power of attorney for health care, designed to meet the legal requirements in nearly all states.
- Family Conversations About End-of-Life Care (Commission Director Charles Sabatino appeared on WAMU’s Diane Rehm radio show August 8, 2012.)
- Consumer's Tool Kit for Health Care Advance Planning.
- Health & Financial Decisions: Legal Tools for Preserving Your Personal Autonomy.
- Health and Financial Decisions (En Español).
- Making Medical Decisions for Someone Else: A How-To Guide
- Making Medical Decisions for Someone Else: A Guide for Marylanders Brochure or Handbook
- Shape Your Health Care Future with Health Care Advance Directives.
- Myths and Facts About Health Care Advance Directives
- Links to State-specific Advance Directive Forms (Updated 2011)
- In Your Hands: The Tools for Preserving Personal Autonomy
Narrated by the late Helen Hayes, with an epilogue by her son, James MacArthur, addresses the legal aspects of planning for incapacity in a clear and positive way, and introduces four legal tools: durable powers of attorney, medical powers of attorney, living wills and trusts. 1994.
- The Hastings Center Guidelines on Life-Sustaining Treatment and Care Near the End of Life. This edition updates and significantly expands the Center's groundbreaking comprehensive ethics guidelines first published in 1987.
- AARP Analysis: States Find Success with Physician Orders (POLST) to Honor Patients’ Treatment Wishes. Report offers suggestions for states to launch POLST programs effectively.
- Lawyers Tool Kit for Health Care Advance Planning
- The Evolution of Healthcare Advance Planning Law and Policy (article by Charles Sabatino, 88 Milbank Quarterly 2, 211–239 (2010))
Resources on Assessing Capacity
- Assessment of Older Adults with Diminished Capacity: A Handbook for Lawyers
This book offers ideas and makes suggestions for attorneys who wish to balance the competing goals of autonomy and protection as they confront the difficult challenges of working with older adults with problems in decision-making capacity. 2005, reprinted 2007. 80 pp. - Judicial Determination of Capacity of Older Adults in Guardianship Proceedings
This book contains practical tools to equip a wide audience of judges to conduct any form of guardianship proceeding more effectively. Includes links to expanded information, work sheets, and model forms. 2006. 41 pp. - Assessment of Older Adults with Diminished Capacity: A Handbook for Psychologists
This handbook is designed for psychologists evaluating civil capacities of older adults. 2008. 146 pp.
- State Health Care Power of Attorney Statutes: Selected Characteristics (January 2013)
- Summary of Health Care Decision Statutes Enacted in 2012
- 2010 Advance Directive Legislation (July 2010)
- Advance Care Planning in Health Reform (Formerly Misrepresented as "Death Panels")
- Summary of Health Care Decisions Statutes Enacted in 2010
- Default Surrogate Consent Statutes (November 2009)
