title: Advance care planning in the elderly.
abstract: Key components of advance care planning (ACP) for the elderly include choosing a surrogate decision maker, identifying personal values, communicating with surrogates and clinicians, documenting wishes in advance directives, and translating values and preferences for future medical care into medical orders. ACP often involves multiple brief discussions over time. This article outlines common benefits and barriers to ACP in primary care, and provides practical approaches to integrating key ACP components into primary care for older adults. Opportunities for multidisciplinary teams to incorporate ACP into brief clinic visits are highlighted.
authors.affiliation: Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine, 12631 East 17th Avenue, B-179, Aurora, CO 80045, USA; Department of Medicine, VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System, 1055 Clermont Street, Denver, CO 80220, USA. Electronic address: Hillary.Lum@ucdenver.edu.
authors.forename: Hillary D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Lum
authors.affiliation: Division of Geriatrics, San Francisco VA Medical Center, University of California, 4150 Clement Street, #151R, San Francisco, CA 94121, USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Sudore
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine, 12631 East 17th Avenue, Aurora, CO 80045, USA; Department of Medicine, VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System, 1055 Clermont Street, Research (151), Denver, CO 80220, USA.
authors.forename: David B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Bekelman
mesh_terms: D032722:Advance Care Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016223:Advance Directives; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003144:Communication Barriers; D006801:Humans; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life
keywords: Advance care planning; Advance directives; Communication; Patient-doctor relationship; Surrogate decision maker