Bill Brings A Voice to Unrepresented Patients

Bill Brings A Voice to Unrepresented Patients

State Representative Dave Young (HD-50) has been engaged with many stakeholder groups within the state’s health care community in his effort to successfully sponsor House Bill 1101. The bill is designed to help unrepresented patients receive more effective medical treatment when they are incapacitated and have no decision-making capabilities. Backers of the bill say it will provide more comprehensive medical treatment for those patients who do not have ‘a voice’ to represent them in their treatment. In an interview with Catherine Strode, Representative Young says he is glad the bill is bringing attention to this issue that affects thousands of Coloradans.

Why have you brought this bill?
“The bill is an effort to provide representation for people who are unrepresented in medical and long term care situations that don’t have decisional capability. I’m bringing the bill on behalf of a group of people who have been working on this issue for nearly a decade. They would like to see more of a global solution occur. Their conversations have been around developing an Office of Public Guardianship. We know that is going to be a big financial, as well as legislative, effort to do. In the meantime, they are seeking this more narrow solution just to move things forward a little bit in this area. This is an effort to modify our current proxy statutes so someone with decisional capability can help make decisions for people who are unrepresented and don’t have decisional capability. They see this as a very narrow fix to a bigger problem and are still going to continue to work on a more global solution.”

How does this bill modify current proxy statutes?
“Currently under the proxy statute, if there is a medical emergency the physician, or their designee, can make medical decisions on behalf of a person who doesn’t have decisional capability. The problem is that often people who lack decisional capability, and are in a long term case situation in a hospital or nursing home, have a medical condition that is not an emergency. These are people who aren’t represented by anybody; no one is empowered to take action. If somebody is languishing without care, what we’ve done is extend that decision capability to the physician or their designee in order to make those decisions. There may be as many as five thousand unrepresented people in the state of Colorado at this given time. If every one of the advocacy groups fanned out across the state, scoured every medical facility, and made sure there was someone there to advocate for them we wouldn’t need the bill. Unfortunately that is not the case. I’m trying to ensure that people get the right kind of care they need through this bill.”

Under this bill, who can make non-emergency care decisions?
“If the person doesn’t have decisional capability, we want to find a proxy. The proxy could be: a family member, a spouse, a friend, someone who knows the person well and thinks they know their wishes. Sometimes, no one wants to step forward. The person doesn’t have any family or any friends who can be located. No one’s available. If the facility has exhausted their search and can’t find anybody, and they want to give the physician or their designee the option to take on that proxy role, they can. However, there’s nothing in the bill that requires them to do that. We aren’t creating a mandate on anyone to be a proxy. There’s going to be consultation with the Ethics Committee that does work as a sounding board to decision making within facilities. There’s that oversight provided for in the bill.”

How have you addressed concerns from the disability community about the bill?
“We’ve taken amendments by the Arc of Colorado with input from a wider group of advocates. I think because of the End of Life Options Bill, people are in a heightened state of concern. I understand it. There is a reality here that this group is trying to address. They are attempting to allow a physician to take action. I do believe most physicians and people who work in health care really do try and do the best they can for their patients. The lion share of physicians, if empowered to act, would act in the best interest of the patient. Is it perfect? No. But it’s an effort to try and move forward with some positive action instead of letting the situation continue to languish and not get attention. To the concern that people will think this is a permanent solution and work toward a better solution is going to stop, all I can say is, ‘ I’m committed to finding better solutions. I’m not stopping that work. And, hopefully, other people won’t stop either.’”

Health News

Mary Sims, AdvocacyDenver Advocate and Health Educator (pictured above), is currently training to be a yoga instructor. She plans to incorporate adaptive yoga into the AdvocayDenver health class line-up!

Learn more about the benefits of yoga for people with disabilities with these resources:

Yoga for People with Disabilities – The Chicago Tribune

One Small Step at a Time: Yoga for People with Disabilities – Carla Douros, Kripalu certified E-RYT yoga teacher who holds a PhD in Physiological Psychology

Top Ten Benefits of Yoga – The Art of Living

38 Health Benefits of Yoga – Yoga Journal

“If you can breathe, you can do yoga.”
-Krishnamacharya