Your doctors and nurses might talk to you about advance care plans. They can explain to you what kind of treatment you might need in the future, and what decisions might need to be made.
The discussion can also involve people who are important to you if you want, such as your carer, friends and family. The advance care plan can include instructions on what you’d like the people caring for you to do if you become too unwell to make decisions for yourself. It can then be kept in your medical records, and if you move to stay somewhere else the plan can move with you.
It can help to have a copy of your advance care plan somewhere obvious in your home, like attached to your fridge. This means that it’s easy to find for anyone who might need it, like a paramedic coming to your house, for example.
The decisions you make might be about where you want to stay, what kind of treatment you do or don’t want, or who you want to make decisions for you. It can also include information about your religious, spiritual and cultural values and how this might impact how you want to be cared for.
If you don’t want to think about this kind of thing, you don’t have to. An advance care plan is completely voluntary, and you shouldn’t feel pressure to add in anything that you don’t want to. It’s also not set in stone – you can make changes to your advance care plan at any time if you want to.
If your doctor or nurse hasn’t spoken to you about advance care plans but you want more information, you can ask them at any time.