It is important we all consider Advance Care Planning, however, it is particularly important if:
Start by talking to your family, friends and doctors about your values, beliefs and health care preferences. Be fully informed of health issues you have or are likely to have in the future by talking to your doctors or other health professionals.
You might find these videos and written information helpful to understand the importance of talking about your future healthcare preferences.
A video from Advance Care Planning Australia. How well do you know your partner? Are you prepared for life’s toughest decisions?
A video from Central Hume Primary Care Partnership. Chris Thorne (Aboriginal Community Support Worker – Koolin Balit) talks about his recent experience where advance care planning would have been of very real benefit.
A PDF document from the Office of the Public Advocate (OPA). This guide has information on medical treatment decision makers, advance care directives and enduring powers of attorney.
PDF document about planning ahead for your future healthcare
If there is something you feel strongly about you can write it down in an Advance Care Plan / Directive or in a letter describing your health care values and preferences for future medical treatments, including what type of medical treatment you would agree to, and what you would not want.
A PDF document. This workbook will help you start thinking about a time when you may not be able to make your own decisions about your medical treatment, who you might want to make medical decisions for you and how to let them know what you would want.
If you are ever unable to make medical decisions for yourself due to an injury or medical condition, the law states who can make decisions for you. This is known as a medical treatment decision maker. You can nominate or formally appoint someone you trust to make decisions about your healthcare on your behalf.
A PDF form you can fill in on your computer. This is the form you fill in to appoint someone as Medical Treatment Decision Maker on your behalf, if for some reason you are unable to make decisions about your medical treatment yourself.
A PDF document. This checklists tells you the decisions you should make and the steps you should take to fill in the above form and appoint your medical treatment decision maker.
In Victoria, if you are able to make decisions with support, you can legally appoint someone you trust (your Support Person) to assist you to access, or help you to access, health information relevant to your medical treatment decision making.
A PDF form you can fill in on your computer. This is the form you fill in to appoint someone as a support person to help you to access health information about your medical treatment decision making
A PDF document. This checklists tells you the decisions you should make and the steps you should take to fill in the above form and appoint your support person.
Writing down your preferences in an advance care directive, or in a letter describing your healthcare preferences, ensures your preferences and values are known to your medical treatment decision maker. If you do not have a medical treatment decision maker your advance care directive can help your healthcare practitioner know what is important to you.
A PDF form you can fill in on your computer. This is the form you fill in to tell people about your health care values and preferences for future medical treatments, including what type of medical treatment you would agree to, and what you would not want.
A PDF document. This gives you instructions on how to fill in the Advance Care Directive form.
A PDF document from the Office of the Public Advocate (OPA). This guide has information on medical treatment decision makers, advance care directives and enduring powers of attorney.
Make sure that your medical treatment decision maker has a copy of anything that is written. It would be useful to also give this information to your GP/doctor, even if you don’t complete a formal ACD which is signed off by the GP/doctor.
A person who lacks capacity to complete an Advance Care Directive, or other advance care planning document for themselves, may have known values and preferences for future healthcare. These preferences and values may have been: (i) communicated verbally; (ii) inferred from the way the person has lived their life and made other decisions; or (iii) based on observations about how they cope with their health issues and medical interventions.
These preferences and values can be recorded, by one or more people who know the person well, in the form, ‘What I understand to be the person’s preferences and values’. Note: this form is not an Advance Care Planning document.
This form records information about a person who cannot make medical decisions or express their preferences about medical treatment. What is written in this form will help the Medical Treatment Decision Maker and health professionals to make medical decisions that the person would want.
