Choosing your future health care
Age, illness or accident may at some time make it hard for you to make decisions about your health care.
Advance care planning involves thinking about those decisions now, while you are able. The My Care, My Choices brochure explains the advance care planning process in simple terms.
Your plan will help guide the people who may need to make choices on your behalf in the future.
Planning ahead can mean:
- discussing your health care and quality of life choices with those closest to you
- choosing and appointing your Enduring Power of Attorney(s)
- completing an Advance Health Directive
- writing down your values, beliefs and health care preferences in a Statement of Choices.
Advance care planning gives you a chance to think about, discuss and ideally document your preference for the type of care you would like to receive in the future. You can also share your views on the kinds of outcomes you would and would not want.
ACP often relates to care you wish to receive at the end of your life but, even if you are fit and healthy, it is never too early to plan your future health care. If you have strong beliefs about what you want to happen in the future, it is particularly important to make your plans and wishes known now.
ACP becomes even more important when you are living with a chronic illness and critical when you are hearing the end of your life. It is relevant for children and young people with a life-limiting illness or condition
Advance care planning is a completely voluntary process.
Why you should plan ahead
All adults in Australia, regardless of where they were born or what culture they identify with, have the right to make decisions about their future medical care and to have those choices respected.
Advance care planning can help to ensure:
- your health wishes and expectations are known and therefore more easily met
- your loved ones won’t have to make difficult decisions on your behalf without knowing what you would have wanted
- your words guide those making decisions about your health care when you can’t speak for yourself.