Advance care planning is a voluntary process of planning for future health and personal care whereby the consumer’s values, beliefs and preferences are made known to guide decision-making at a future time when that consumer cannot make or communicate their decisions.
Advance care planning may result in a consumer recording their preferences and decisions by completing one or more advance care planning documents.
Advance Care Planning documents are included in the My Health Record system to provide increased accessibility to a consumer’s advance care planning information nationwide.
Advance care planning documents in My Health Record can include:
- Advance Care Directive:
- Statutory Advance Care Directive: a signed document that complies with the requirements set out by a jurisdiction’s legislation – specific to each state and territory. except NSW which has no statutory ACD. These documents are known by different names in different jurisdictions, including: Advance Care Directive, Advance Health Directive, Advance Personal Plan, and Health Direction.
- Common-law (non‐statutory) Advance Care Directive: a structured document that is completed and signed by a competent adult and that is not a legislated statutory document but is recognised under common law (some jurisdictions only).
- Advance Care Plan:
- Documents that capture an individual’s beliefs, values, and preferences in relation to future care decisions, but which do not meet the requirements for statutory or common-law recognition. These are not legally-binding but guide and inform decision-making.
See also: National Framework for advance care planning documents, Advance Care Planning Australia.
There are differences across Australian States and Territories in relation to legislative requirements for completion and use of advance care planning documents. For further information on laws relating to advance care planning documents and decision-making see: QUT - End of Life Law in Australia.
On completion, original advance care planning documents should be kept in a safe place, and copies of the document shared with anyone who may need to be involved in decisions about the person’s future care e.g., substitute decision maker(s), family, close friends, health care providers, aged care providers.
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