Advance Care Planning
Advance care planning involves planning for your future health care. It allows you to decide what health care you would or wouldn’t want if you become unable to make or communicate your treatment preferences in the future.
Advance care planning gives you the opportunity to think about, discuss and record preferences for the type of care you would want and the outcomes you would consider acceptable. It helps to ensure your loved ones and health providers know what matters most to you and respect your treatment preferences.
Everyone should consider advance care planning, regardless of your age or health. Ideally, you should start planning when you’re healthy – before there’s an urgent need for decisions to be made at a time when you can’t communicate your choices.
Once you’ve completed your advance care planning documents, keep the originals in a safe place.
It’s very important to share copies of your documents. Give them to the people who’ll be involved in making decisions about your care and treatment if you’re unable to decide for yourself. This includes:
- Your substitute decision-maker
- Your family
- Your GP
- Hospital and Community Care staff.
The Victorian Government Advance Care Directive for Adults is available, visit Advance care planning forms.
