Patients want a voice in their end of life care, rather than control over each treatment decision. ACP helps people relieve burdens on loved ones. ACP helps people relieve burdens on their loved ones by helping determine settings for care and limits for life-sustaining treatments, and helps prepare loved ones who may serve as substitute decision makers in a crisis. ACP helps people strengthen relationships with loved ones. Facing death in the context of loved ones may be an important redeeming accomplishment.
People live in a web of social ties and often fear dying in isolation.
Dying offers important opportunities for growth, intimacy, reconciliation and closure in relationships. To summarize, ACP is a process of communication that helps people prepare for death in the context of their loved ones. But often when we think of ACP we think of advance directive forms. ACP is a process of communication, and AD forms are best viewed as an assisting device embedded in the ACP process. Many people consider themselves satisfied with their ACP without completion of an AD form.