Advance care planning: let your voice be heard

No one knows what the future holds – severe illness could happen to you or someone you love at any time.

When we’re well, we often don’t think of what kind of medical treatments we would choose to accept if we became very sick and unable to communicate.

April 12 is national advance care planning day.

Advance care planning helps you to have a say about the health care you would choose to accept if you get very sick and cannot speak for yourself. It means that your doctor and family members won’t have to guess what you would want if you are unable to tell them yourself.

“A key part of quality patient care is respecting a patient’s expressed health care wishes when working with them to develop their care plans,” said Dr. Doris Barwich, Medical Director, Fraser Health End of Life Care. “Knowing a patient’s health care wishes can also help reduce the physical, moral and emotional stress for patients, families and care providers when providing health care.”

Katherine Tam knows first hand what it can be like when a loved one’s health care wishes are not known.

When Mrs Tam’s father was receiving end-of-life care a few years ago, the responsibility of making health care decisions fell to the family when he was no longer able to voice his wishes. To Mrs. Tam’s surprise, each of her siblings had very different ideas of what they thought their father would want during end of life care.

“Sometimes we assume we would know what our loved ones would want – with my father’s case, making health care decisions on his behalf caused much emotional turmoil because each family member had a different idea of what my father would have wanted,” said Mrs. Tam. “This really prompted me to start thinking very seriously about advance care planning and about what I would want if I were ever in that situation.”

Advance care planning is a way for you to reflect on your personal values, wishes and beliefs to make your own future health care decisions, while still capable of doing so.

It is important that you have a conversation with your loved ones and healthcare provider about Advance Care Planning while you are healthy and can fully identify your wishes.

• There may be a time when you may not be able to decide for yourself when you are very sick or near death.
• Your loved ones can’t know what kind of care you want unless you tell them.
• You can ask your doctor questions and learn about different options to help you make choices that fit with your values and beliefs.

When you’re ready to start the conversation about advance care planning, the first step is to speak with your health care provider and those close to you to make sure that they know your wishes, understand them and are willing to honour them.

There isn’t an official form you need to complete for an advance care plan. You can use the free My Voice workbook and other resources available on the Fraser Health advance care planning website pages . You can also simply just write down your wishes, date and sign the paper, and have a witness date and sign the paper.

Looking for more info?

Visit the advance care planning pages on fraserhealth.ca for information and resources on advance care planning.

For more about national advance care planning day, visit www.advancecareplanning.ca.

If you have any questions about advance care planning at Fraser Health, contact us at 1-877-TALK-034 (1-877-825-5034) or email advancecareplanning@fraserhealth.ca.