A Living Will For Alzheimer's

46:59

February 04, 2018

In this May 17, 2017 photo resident Gerda Noack talks with residence director Gunter Wolfram in the Alexa Seniors' Residence in Dresden, eastern Germany. The retirement home has recreated the communist era of the former GDR in two living-rooms to help residents with Alzheimer's and dementia. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

With guest host Indira Lakshmanan.

While you’re still of sound mind, should you lay out the medical care you want if you’re diagnosed with Alzheimer’s? Now, you can.

Dr. Barak Gaster's dementia-specific advance directive can be found at this link.

Guests:

Dr. Barak Gaster, professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Dr. Darby Morhardt, professor at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

Dr. Reisa Sperling, director of the Center for Alzheimer's Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

From The Reading List:

New York Times: One Day Your Mind Might Fade. At Least You'll Have A Plan. — "Dr. Barak Gaster, an internist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, had spent three years working with specialists in geriatrics, neurology, palliative care and psychiatry to come up with a five-page document that he calls a dementia-specific advance directive."

This program aired on February 5, 2018.