Family Center
 This area of our website is dedicated to our clients and their families. All of the information, forms, and updates families need will be available here. As always, if families have questions, they can call us at 952-935-5581.
Caregivers Calendar - a soon-to-arrive interactive calendar that will simplify and streamline scheduling requests for nurses and priority times.
Annual Forms:
These forms need to updated annually. Please print the forms, fill them out, and fax or mail them back to our office.
You will need to have Adobe Reader installed on your computer to read these documents. If you don't have it installed already, you may download it here .
Caregivers Notes - Our Family Newsletter:
Caregivers Network publishes a seasonal newsletter covering topics of interest to our families. Here they can find the latest on pediatric home health care issues and trends, company events and special notices. Click on any of the issues below to read it on your screen.
(You will need to have Adobe Reader installed on your computer to read these documents. If you don't have it installed already, you may download it here )
Advance Directives... What You Should Know
What is an Advance Directive?
An advance directive is a written document that informs others of your wishes about health care. It allows you to name a person to make medical decisions for you if you are unable to decide. You must be 18 years old to make a health care directive.
What is a Living Will?
A living will is an advance directive that says what kinds of treatment you do or do not wish to receive if you become terminally ill and unable to communicate your wishes. A living will allows you to decide whether and under what circumstances you would want your life prolonged through artificial means.
What is “Artificial Means?”
These are types of care that can keep a person alive after a point at which death would occur naturally if it were not for the use of these advanced forms of medical interventions. Here are a few examples:
- Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) can restart a person’s heartbeat and breathing through a combination of chest compressions, forced breathing, emergency medication, and electric shock.
- A mechanical respirator or “ventilator" is a machine that can replace normal breathing.
- Kidney dialysis can remove impurities from the blood after kidney failure.
- Medications, especially antibiotics , may be able to fight off infection that would otherwise be the natural cause of death of a person who is also in the advanced stage of terminal illness.
- Tube feeding and intravenous feeding , often referred to as “artificial nutrition and hydration,” can deliver food and water through a tube running from the nose to the stomach or through the skin and into a vein to someone who has lost the ability to swallow.
What is Durable Power of Attorney?
A health care directive that allows someone you have chosen to make health care decisions for you if you become unable to make such decisions for yourself.
Why have an Advance Directive?
An advance directive is important if your attending physician determines that you cannot communication your health care choices (because of physical or mental incapacity). It is also important if you wish to have someone else make your health care decisions when you cannot make your own.
You do not have to have an advance directive, but writing one helps to make sure that your wishes are followed. You will still receive medical treatment if you do not have a directive. Health care providers will listen to what people close to you say about your treatment preferences. However, the best way to be sure your wishes are followed is to have an advance directive.
How do I make an Advance Directive?
There are forms for advance directives. You do not have to use the form, but your health care directive must meet the following requirements to be legal:
- It must be in writing and dated;
- It must state your name;
- It must be signed by someone you authorized to sign for you when you can understand and communicate your health care wishes;
- It must have your signature verified by a notary public or two witnesses;
- It must include the appointment of another person to make health care decisions for you and/or instructions about the health care choices you wish to make.
What can I include in an Advance Directive?
You have many choices of what to include in your health care directive. For example, you may include:
- The person you trust to make health care decisions for you;
- Your goals, values, and preferences about health care;
- The types of medical treatment you want or do not want;
- How you want the appointed person to decide;
- Where you want to receive care;
- Instructions about artificial nutrition and hydration;
- Mental health treatments that use electroshock therapy or neuroleptic medications;
- Instructions if you are pregnant;
- Donations of organs, tissues, and eyes;
- Funeral arrangements;
- Who you would like as your guardian or conservator if there is a court action.
You may be as specific or as general as you wish. You can choose which tissues or treatments to deal with in your health care directive.
What should I do with my Advance Directive after I’ve signed it?
You should inform others of your health care directive and give people copies of it. You may wish to inform family members, your appointed person, and your health care providers that you have a health care directive and give them a copy.
It’s a good idea to review and update your directive as your needs change.
Keep it in a safe place where it can be easily found.
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