The Benefits of Five Wishes

Most of us know the importance of planning for the future. But, knowing about it and doing something are two quite different things. It’s easy to simply push the planning off – sometimes until a crisis hits and none of the paperwork you need is in place.

What’s more, failing to plan can sometimes have awful consequences.

This is certainly true for advance care planning, as a sudden illness or accident can change your health overnight. Getting your health wishes followed at this point may become surprisingly difficult, especially if you’re not able to make decisions for yourself.

Situations like this are why Five Wishes is so powerful.

Five Wishes is the only national advance care planning program, which means you can use the same document no matter where you are in the United States.

It’s also much more than that. Crucially, Five Wishes is accessible. It’s easier to understand and is available in more languages than most other advance planning forms. There are other benefits too, as you’ll learn below.

Benefits of Five Wishes

You Can Choose a Decision Maker

Five Wishes contains a legal Power of Attorney (PoA) form, which allows you to nominate someone to make decisions for you when you can’t.

For example, if you’re in a coma or in the later stages of dementia – your nominated person steps up and makes healthcare decisions based on your wishes.

Without this type of form, your decision maker will be chosen based on the hierarchy in your state. This could leave you with someone who isn’t a good fit. Perhaps they don’t know you well or don’t have much free attention. For example, an adult child who barely knows you might be chosen over your domestic partner.

By using Five Wishes, you can think about and nominate your ideal decision maker.

You Can Talk About the Future

The paperwork is only one aspect of advance planning – and is not even the most important part. You’ll also be talking to family members about future care needs, including the wishes and values that matter the most.

Having these conversations helps protect you in the future. After all, a Living Will cannot possibly cover every situation. The more your family knows, the more guidance they have.

Talking about the future has another huge benefit – it reduces fear.

Many of us naturally avoid topics like death and serious illness, which makes them feel bigger and more terrifying than they need to be. Having honest conversations helps to reduce some of the fear and empowers people.

This is partly because conversations about death help us confront the idea of uncertainty. 

Five Wishes Streamlines the Process

Advance care planning involves multiple pieces of paperwork, which can make it confusing and sometimes overwhelming.

Five Wishes aims to make this easier by combining a Living Will and Power of Attorney (PoA) form in a single document. Combining them like this makes advance planning faster and more streamlined. There’s only one signature page to worry about, complete with clear instructions about who can witness and/or notarize the form.

Plus, a Living Will and PoA are the most crucial pieces of advance planning paperwork. It’s fantastic to get both of these out of the way at the same time.

Covers Extra Information

Five Wishes lives up to its name and contains five distinct wishes:

• Wish 1. The Person I Want to Make Care Decisions for Me When I Can’t (in other words, the PoA form)
• Wish 2. The Kind of Medical Treatment I Want or Don’t Want (the Living Will)
• Wish 3. How Comfortable I Want to Be
• Wish 4. How I Want People to Treat Me
• Wish 5. What I Want My Loved Ones to Know

The last three wishes can be described as emotional, spiritual, and comfort wishes. The image below shows what this looks like in practice.

These wishes are powerful, as they’re not found in most other advance directives. They also give you the chance to get more personal about what matters the most to you.

These wishes are distinct from a Living Will and don’t have the same legal weight. Still, they can be a valuable guide for healthcare staff and family members.

Easy to Understand

Advance directives are often quite formal and precise, like in the examples below (from Arizona’s state-specific forms). This language can make the forms harder to understand and less accessible.

In contrast, Five Wishes keeps the language as simple as possible, as shown in the image below.

There’s also bolding, italics, and shorter paragraphs, all of which make the document easier to read.

Easy to Use

Five Wishes has other features that make it easy to use as well, including descriptions of extra steps and a wallet card that can be cut out and kept. There’s also just a single signature page to cover the entire document.

These features all make Five Wishes even more straightforward. As such, anyone resistant to regular advance directives may be willing to give Five Wishes a try.

You Can Add Extra Information

Like most advance directives, Five Wishes can be tailored to your needs. There are plenty of sections to write in and you can even attach a document to provide even more information (for example, you might attach a page detailing your wishes for dementia care).

Experts Can Help with the Document and Any Questions

Five Wishes regularly trains group facilitators and experts, who can then help individuals with their advance planning questions. So, you don’t need to figure things out on your own. You can ask specific questions and get guidance when you need it. This isn’t true with most other advance planning forms.

Provides Consistency Between States

Five Wishes has been carefully designed to meet the legal requirements of most states. A little extra paperwork is needed for a handful of states, but most don’t even require this.

In contrast, most other forms are designed for a specific state. Those forms may transfer well to some states and not others, potentially forcing people to redo their paperwork any time they move.

It’s incredible to have a single consistent form you can use across the entire country. This is perfect for people who plan to move in the future and even simply if you want the option.

Is Five Wishes Better than Other Advance Directives?

Many of the benefits we’ve discussed apply to other Living Wills and PoA forms as well, including those from your state and any you develop with a lawyer.

Even so, Five Wishes stands out because it’s easier to understand, can be used across states, and includes some needs that other forms miss. These features make Five Wishes better in some situations, particularly for people who struggle to understand regular advance directives or don’t want to fill them out.

Are There Any Issues with Five Wishes?

There is no one-size-fits-all advance directive. Instead, each option has its strengths and limitations. With Five Wishes, the most notable limitations are:

• Recognizability: Five Wishes isn’t as well-known as other advance directives and some staff members may brush it off as not being a legal PoA or Living Will.
• Less Precise. While the language of Five Wishes makes it easy to understand, it is also less precise than what you find in other advance directives. This can sometimes lead to misunderstandings or confusion.

Five Wishes also misses some situations, like what happens if someone is pregnant. However, no form will cover every possible situation, so this isn’. You can always write extra details in yourself anyway.

How to Use Five Wishes Effectively

Five Wishes works best when you take the time to think and talk about your wishes. This includes having in-depth conversations with family members and health care professionals.

After all, advance directives can’t possibly cover every situation. Your healthcare proxy is still going to need to interpret your wishes and apply them to what’s actually happening.

Talking to healthcare staff also helps identify issues early. For example, if there’s an issue with your paperwork or the staff don’t recognize Five Wishes – you want to know this as early as possible.

Also remember to update your Five Wishes regularly. Your wishes are likely to change as time goes on, especially after major life events. Be sure to update your Living Will to reflect such changes.

Final Thoughts

Five Wishes is a unique advance directive. It gives you a PoA and a Living Will in a single easy-to-understand form. It’s perfect for any stage of life, even if you have no serious health problems.