6 Uncomfortable But Necessary Questions To Ask Your Older Parents

Dean Mitchell via Getty Images Experts share some of the most important things to ask your aging parents about their end-of-life wishes. Only one-third of Americans have advanced care directives in place, “leaving family members often struggling to determine what their parent’s wishes are or making choices that they may not have made for themselves,” Loren Talbot, director of communications for the International End-Of-Life Doula Association, told HuffPost. “Family members can use our letter template to have a gentle conversation with their parents and help them complete their letter advance directive to their doctor.” It includes prompts about how medical decisions are made in the family, how bad news is handled, whether they’d want to be put on a ventilator or sedated if they were in extreme pain. First, know that it may never feel like the “right” time to talk about your parents’ end-of-life wishes. “And then, as someone is clearly dying, family may not want to broach the conversation for fear it may cause anxiety or depression — and oftentimes family and friends don’t now how to broach this conversation,” Sethi said.