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Most of us have firm ideas about our healthcare as we age: who do we trust to make decisions on our behalf if we are incapable of doing so ourselves, do we want invasive treatment or intervention and would we want to be resuscitated?
Imagine if we hadn’t made those intentions clear – and suddenly, we were unable to communicate our wishes. The family has the best intentions, but their decisions about your ongoing care don’t align with your preferences.
Advance care planning is the process where an individual can map out the type of health and dental care they would or wouldn’t like to receive if they became seriously ill, injured or unable to communicate their preferences.
Talking to loved ones and your GP are the ideal starting points to putting a plan together, and consideration should be given to:
- Values and life goals
- Wishes for your different future health scenarios
- Instructions about your care if a life-threatening illness or injury occurs
- Your Enduring Guardian or Person Responsible, Power of Attorney
It’s important to remember your GP can record your advance care plan on your My Health record, to give you peace of mind and reassurance that any GP or hospital has access to your wishes.
During illness, stress and emotions, and even lack of time, come into play and a documented advance plan takes away any second-guessing or difficult decision-making.
Some of the benefits of an advance care plan include:
- An opportunity for an individual to think about, discuss and record their preferences for the type of care they would like to receive and the outcomes they would consider acceptable
- Documented preferences ensure loved ones and doctors know and can respect the individual’s treatment and care wishes and directives
- It helps to ensure you receive the care you actually want and it improves ongoing and end-of-life care
- Removes from the family any stress, worry and disagreements about decisions around care and treatment
We recommend everyone should consider advance care planning, regardless of age or health. It is more pressing if a person is older, suffers from a chronic illness or disease, has an early cognitive impairment or is heading towards end-of-life.
The planning process entails writing a legally binding Advance Care Directive (ACD), which should include specific details about medical treatments and resuscitation. Your GP may also ask you to complete a form for the NSW Ambulance Service to let them know what medications and treatments they can provide if called.
When your plan is complete, you should share it with your GP, family, close friends and anyone else involved in your care or legal matters. Your plan, goals or preferences can be changed at any time.
Start your advance care plan
SWSPHN recommends you visit the Advance Care Planning Australia website.
Or call the National Advance Care Planning Support Service on 1300 208 582 for help with creating your plan.
Speak to your GP about your end-of-life wishes
Your GP can help you develop your advance care plan and upload it to My Health Record.
For more information on how a GP can assist help visit the Health Resource Directory website.
Uploading your advance care planning documents to My Health Record
When your advance care plan is available on My Health Record it is immediately accessible to healthcare workers.
Visit the Australian Digital Health Agency website for how to use My Health Record to keep your advance care plan.
Advance Care Plans are not just for old people
Imagine if you end up in hospital unconscious and unable to tell emergency staff your healthcare choices.
It’s not too early to put an advance care plan in place.