Advance Care Planning

Who would make the medical treatment decisions for you if you were too sick to do this yourself?

Family and health care practitioners are often required to make medical treatment decisions without knowing a person’s preferences. In order to address this, Alexandra District Health has implemented the Advance Care Planning program.

A key aim of the program is to identify the individual’s values and preferences regarding their health care and medical treatment, particularly around end-of-life issues, and document these in an Advance Care Directive

Advance Care Planning

• Promotes an individual’s understanding of their future treatment options.
• Assists individuals to discuss and document their values and preferences about their future medical treatment, including end-of-life care, and complete an Advance Care Directive if they wish to.
  
  

Advance Care Planning is a consultation process with health care providers and family members that help you make decisions about your future health care, should you become unable to participate in medical treatment decision-making due to illness or injury.

In Victoria, the program relies on the recently implemented Medical Treatment Planning and Decisions Act 2016.  The act enables a person to appoint someone who can act as his or her Medical Treatment Decision Maker and to develop an Advance Care Directive, which has statutory recognition