Advance care planning

We should all have discussions with the people that we love about what our wishes are if we were to have a catastrophic accident or lose capacity or have a life limiting disease and we should have these conversations with our families about their wishes but we don’t.

In fact the experiences of many of the people we care for professionally and their loved ones is that they do not get the opportunity to have frank and open discussions about their wishes as they approach the end of life. 

If we were more proactive in these discussions then they would be less distressing and could be held over a number of different conversations so that gradually a picture is built up from which the person and those important to them as well as the professionals involved in their care can put together a plan that can be shared with all the relevant people as to what their wishes are as they approach the end of life.

Many of us do not have a will, do not have a Lasting Power of Attorney for our parents or for ourselves, do not have advanced decisions to refuse treatment or any other advanced care plan which, if something does happen unexpectedly or otherwise we struggle to know what to do. The following resources may be of help in initiating the discussions and give some context to the importance of carrying out timely and sensitive conversations with people.