Althea
Althea is 72-year-old healthy woman. Althea is not married. Her mother is 96 years old and Althea has two sisters.
Advance Care Planning for Althea involves identifying who she would want as her substitute decision-maker. It also involves an exploration of her values and helping her SDM understand how she uses them to make health decisions.
Instead of her automatic SDM, she chooses to appoint her two sisters jointly as her Attorneys for personal care. They have to make healthcare decisions temporarily when she has a bad bladder infection that makes her lose capacity.
The most important values to Althea are her dignity and being able to interact with people. She worries about losing her dignity if she is hooked up to machines and she needs total care. She can't imagine not being able to speak and share moments with her sisters.