Advance care planning is about working out end-of-life healthcare plans for you and your family. Making a plan for yourself is the best way to prepare for life’s unexpected twists and turns. What type of medical care do you want in the future or when nearing the end of your life? Who will you trust in the case of a medical emergency? Who would you like to speak on your behalf if you can’t? Where do you want to be cared for? Who needs to know what?

An advance care plan is sometimes known as a living will. It’s involves documenting your preferences for end-of-life care. It can include your values, life goals, and directions about care and treatments. You can also formally appoint a substitute decision-maker or healthcare proxy, in your advance care plan.

Advance care plans are legally binding and the preferences for healthcare that you document must be followed.

Why should you have an advance care plan?

There’s a lot of avoidance when it comes to talking about how we’d like to be cared for if we get seriously ill, and how we’d like to die. But sidestepping the issue does nobody any good.

Talking about death with those close to us is not about being ghoulish or giving up on life, but a way to ensure greater quality of life, even when faced with a life-limiting illness or tragic accident.

Too many people are dying in a way that they wouldn’t choose for themselves. When we become seriously ill, we end up spending a lot of time – when it’s most precious – in the hospital or at a doctor’s rooms. We spend a lot of time deciphering various treatments and medication. It often goes that way because we’re afraid to confront the truth. It’s not what most people would consider a good way to spend their last stretch of time alive.

The more thinking and talking that’s happened beforehand about the practical and emotional issues, the more it creates the possibility of greater acceptance, compassion, and ease and understanding later on. Setting out your goals through an advance care plan can help you and your family achieve this.

And we know that families of people who have had a written advance care plan in place are left feeling less guilty, uncertain and bereaved after a death.

We’re all going to have to turn our attention to the fact of death at some point – we believe you owe it to you and your family to give yourself a few hours of your life to think about the end of it.