American Geriatrics Society position statement: Making medical treatment decisions for unrepresented older adults

Abstract

This paper is an official position statement of the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and updates the 2017 AGS position statement, Making Medical Treatment Decisions for Unbefriended Older Adults. In this updated position statement, the term “unbefriended” is replaced by “unrepresented” as a term that is more value-neutral, more accurately describes the circumstance in which a person without medical decision-making capacity does not have recognized surrogate representation, and better aligns with increasingly preferred terminology as reflected in recent medical literature. We define unrepresented older adults as those who (1) lack decisional capacity to provide informed consent for a particular medical treatment, (2) have not executed an advance directive that addresses the medical treatment at hand and lack capacity to do so, and (3) lack representation from a surrogate decision-maker (i.e., family, friend, or legally authorized surrogate). Making medical decisions on behalf of unrepresented older adults is exceptionally challenging and, given demographic trends, is likely to become increasingly common in the years ahead. The process of arriving at treatment decisions for this population should follow standards of procedural fairness and include capacity assessment, search for potential surrogates, team-based efforts to determine the patient's values and preferences, and steps to guard against bias. Proactive measures are needed to identify older adults at risk for becoming unrepresented. This position statement also calls for national efforts to reduce state-to-state variability in legal approaches for unrepresented patients.