Advance Care Planning
Important life choices are planned, not left to chance.
Advance Care Planning is thinking about and documenting your preferences for future health care.
Everyone should consider advance care planning, regardless of your age or health. Ideally, you should start planning when you’re healthy — before there’s actually an urgent need for a plan.
It involves you, your loved ones and health professionals talking about your values and the type of health care you would want to receive if you became seriously ill or injured and were unable to say what you want.
There are two terms used regularly when talking about advance care planning:
Advance Care Directive:
- is something you create for yourself and involves documenting your preferences for future care.
- can include your values, life goals and preferred outcomes, and directions about care and treatments.
- can formally appoint a substitute decision-maker.
- is legally binding and the preferences for health care that you document must be followed.
Advance Care Plan:
- is created by someone else on behalf of a person with diminished or no capacity to make decisions for themselves.
- can include an individual’s beliefs, values and preferences in relation to future care decisions.
- are often helpful in providing information for substitute decision-makers and health practitioners and may guide care decisions but are not necessarily legally binding.
If you have any questions regarding Advanced Care Planning, please contact our Clinical Care Managers on 02 4868 6200
Burradoo: Leah O’Regan
Moss Vale: Edsalyn Soon