What is an Advanced Care Directive?

Submitted by AgedCarer on Mon, 10/11/2008 - 9:28pm

An advanced care directive or plan is used when a person can no longer make decisions due to physical or mental incapacity. It is used as a guide to help family and medical staff make often life-sustaining decisions regarding a person's medical care.

Talking openly and honestly before a situation arises, can ease the burden felt by loved ones when they are asked to make life changing decisions.

An advanced care directive helps family make the right decisions based on someone's wishes and preferences. Sometimes a family member will not feel comfortable or be the right person to make these decisions and an enduring guardian may have to be appointed.

When should I make an advanced care directive?

An advanced care directive needs to be made when a person has capacity. This means that the person has to be able to understand the implications of the choices made in the advanced care directive at the time.

Everyone is assumed to have capacity. A person may lack capacity due to dementia, injury or mental illness. If there is a question over a person's capacity a doctor, neuropsychologist or psychogeriatrician may perform an individual assessment.

What do I put in an advanced care directive?

An advanced care directive needs to be specific in detail, current and have a witnessed signature. It needs to give clear guidelines on how a person wishes to be treated under various medical circumstances should they be unable to communicate.

It is a good idea to discuss with your doctor any likely future health care needs. If a loved one has a chronic or degenerative disease ask a doctor how their care needs may change in the future.

This can be difficult to predict but it can give you some indication of the decisions you may have to make if a loved one's health deteriorates. In case of an emergency give your doctor a copy of the advanced care directive.

Your loved one will also have the opportunity to discuss what constitutes quality of life for them and what level of functioning they would find acceptable should they lose capacity or the ability to communicate.

If a family member is moving into an aged care home nursing staff will usually ask you to complete an advanced care plan on admission. You can also get an advanced care directive from your doctor.

You may have to decide if a loved one is to be transferred to hospital if their health deteriorates or if they are for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in case of a medical emergency.

Helpful resources

Visit The Advance Care Directive Association website for information about Advanced Care Directives and order a copy of My Health, My future, My choice.
For more information about organising enduring guardianship visit LawlinkNSW
For help with writing an Advanced Care Directive visit the website Respecting Patient Choices

Tip

Talk to an ageing family member about making an advanced care plan. Caring for someone in the end stage of life can be confronting but talking about these issues before hand can help ease an already stressful situation.