With or without dementia, this type of planning is imperative, and probably should be discussed in the senior years of a teenager’s school life, at the same time they are taught about voting and driving. If young adults were encouraged to think about life and death more fully, it would be something they might even want to know about, but our education system focuses so little on any real life skills or thinking. And then we grow up, and mostly, we adults are so clever, we wait until we are told we might die, to think about life and death. And even then, many people avoid thinking about and planning for the end of their own life. Not just the funeral, but in the case of severe illness. Sometimes, an accident happens, and we have made no plans at all, or worse, we die, we have no will, and our families are left to sort things out.

Not having our end of life care planned for means if something happens that incapacitates us, someone else will be making decisions for us. Yes, decisions about whether or not we should be kept alive with an artificial resuscitation or via a gastric feeding tube, and decisions about our finances, sometimes not made in our best interests. We set ourselves up to be cared for in every sense of the word by those we love, or as the case may be, even by those we don’t love, or worse, by those who don’t love us, and who have less than honourable intentions. We set our families up for possible disputes and friction and anguish, as they may be forced to have to make decisions for our welfare they are not fully willing or comfortable making, and often not capable of making. Planning to die, long before we hit that final path, is the best way to ensure your final wishes will be adhered to.

Have another look at End of life planning for people with dementia, and the link to the booklet in that blog for more information. It is still very relevant even if you don’t have dementia. If you care about planning for your life, planning for dying is simply a part of that. We live until we die.