Advanced Health Directive Treatment Process 2022

Advanced Health Directive or AHD is the legal document drafted by a person
in terms of the written record of their preference for future care, specifically
at the time when the person has lost their ability to make sound decisions.
Yapp
et al. (2018), stated that AHD works as
provision for health care
decisions if, in the future when they are not in the position to make
sound decisions for their betterment.
Thus, in this regard, it can be seen that in case of Peter Smith, who is an 82
years old patient suffering from dementia resulting in short term memory
loss and is not in the position to take sound decision by him. Moreover, Peter
has assigned his daughter Mary as Power of Attorney. Despite these facts,
issues occur at the time when Peter has been bought into the emergency
department with overnight commenced agitation and aggression. After Mary
reached the nursing home she evidenced a proper lack of care and non-
obligation of the AHD as Peter was not wishful of commencing an active
treatment. Apart from this, another degrading situation was the state of
confusion and aggression of Peter as he is was seeing insects’ crawling on
his bed. However, no measure was taken to shift Peter to another bed to
clear his confusion and provide him a sense of satisfaction he was seeking.
Therefore, the issue of Peter’s case can be termed as
ineffective use of
AHD in terms of restraint and law surrounding decision making and
consent and
lack of attention to workplace health and safety in
terms of ineffective patient care.
Following the arising issue of Peter Smith case, it can be said that two of the
major ethical and legal requirements for justifying the scenario will require
the principals of
Medical Treatment (Health Directions) Act 2006 as
well as
Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008. More specifically, as Peter
is the resident of Sunshine Coast, Queensland, his legal requirements of AHD
will involve
Queensland’s Guardianship System under Queensland
AHD where
Mary, Peter’s daughter as Statutory Health Attorney will
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be able to take legal authority for making decisions for his father
Peter who doesn’t have the capacity to make such decisions at the
current stage (AHD, 2019).
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